Klaus Goldschlag
Klaus Goldschlag, was a Canadian ambassador.
Early life
He was born in Berlin, Germany, to the lawyer Walter Goldschlag and his wife Charlotte, née Blumenthal. The family on his father's side were middle-class assimilated Jews and included lawyers and merchants.His paternal uncle, Gerhard, was the father of the infamous Nazi collaborator Stella Goldschlag, and another uncle, George, was a writer.
Goldschlag attended orthodox school and was one of the top students in his class.
During the Nazi regime he became a Jewish semi-orphan living at the Baruch Auerbach home for Jewish children in Berlin Nazi Germany. His father had died in 1930 due to a chronic illness contracted during WWI and his mother not having sufficient money to raise him had to leave him at the orphanage in 1933 while she went into hiding. She was only able to visit him occasionally.
In 1934, Alan Coatsworth, a Toronto fire-insurance broker and a Methodist who wanted to finance the escape of a refugee from Nazi Germany and through communication with two rabbis Maurice Eisendrath from Toronto and Leo Baeck in Germany, Coatsworth was made aware of Goldschlags situation, and in 1937 helped him leave Germany and adopted Goldschlag.
Goldschlag attended Vaughan Road Collegiate and it was the wish of Coatsworth that he became a rabbi. In 1939 his mother was able to leave Germany and emigrated to the Dominican Republic. She and her son were reunited in the 1940s.