Ernst Borinski

Born26/11/1901
Poland, Schlesien, Kattowitz
Died26/05/1983
FatherMax Borinski (28/06/1874 – ca 1942) 
MotherMartha Haendler (28/10/1876 – 26/08/1931) 

Notes

"Born in 1901 to a relatively prosperous secular Jewish family in Upper Silesia along the German-Polish border, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Halle Muenchen in 1924 and studied law in Halle, Saale, Hamburg, and Berlin, Germany from 1925 to 1928. He received the Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Berlin in 1928 and an International Law degree from the Academy of International Law at the Hague, Netherlands, in 1930. He then taught legal rights to workers at the Zeiss Optical Works, served as a judge in the General Court of Kelbra, and practiced law in Erfurt, Germany, with a Jewish fraternity brother from 1929 to 1932. Forecasting the development of Nazi Germany, he escaped to America in 1938 and served overseas in the United States Army during World War II as a translator.

Starting a new life in America after the war, Borinski received a Master of Arts degree in education in 1946 from the University of Chicago... [H]e accepted a position as a sociology professor at Tougaloo in 1947... During his tenure at Tougaloo, he received a Doctor of Philosophy degree in sociology from the University of Pittsburgh in 1954. Despite the demands of his teaching responsibilities, he found time to publish articles, including articles on civil rights law and segregation derived from his dissertation research."


Mississippi Department of Archives and History, in its notes on their Ernst Borinski collection, name his parents as Max and Martha Borinski, in Kattowitz.

According to US intelligence reports, Ernst was born in Kattowitz on 26/11/1901; his father, Max Borinski, lived at Virshowstrasse 1, Beuthen; his mother was dead, and he had a sister Ilse Wolf in Prague. He attended high (secondary) school in Kattowitz from 1912 to 1920.

The 1937 Beuthen address book shows a retired Max Borinski lived at Virshowstrasse 1.

A Polish news website says that Ernst's father Max ran a delicatessen in Katowice in the inter-war period, although in the readers' comments the author corrects this, saying first that "the delicatessen was founded by Louis Borinski. Louis Borisnski was the grandfather of Ernst, Max was his father with a shop in [ul. sv.] Jana" and subsequently that "Louis was the father of Samuel, Samuel was the father of Max, Max was the father of Ernst". The author does not identify his source, and as these comments were posted on 24/05/2013, long after I had placed Ernst tentatively in the same relationship, it could be that his source was this website.

Sources (click here for generic source information)

tougaloo.edu;
mdah.ms.gov - memo to the State Sovereignty Commission recommending surveillance of Dr Ernst Boriski, "Race Agitator", giving biographical details;
mdah.ms.gov - report by the State Sovereignty Commission into various subjects at Tougaloo College including, on the third page, Dr Ernst Boriski;
1937 telephone book for Kattowitz area;
Mississippi Department of Archives and History - notes on Borinski collection;
dziennikzachodni.pl.

This record was last updated on 08/01/2020 at 15:01