Isidor Rubinstein

Isidor Rubinstein was born in Kristiania as one of five children to Rebecca (b. Mindel 1882 in Lithuania) and Harry Rubinstein (b. 1878 in Lithuania, d. 1931 in Oslo).

Isidor grew up in Slemdal in Oslo, was educated in commerce, and already in 1926 went to Canada to try his luck there. Later, together with his older brother Salomon (b. 1907), he went to South Africa where, among other things, he worked in the mines near Johannesburg, and then at a Norwegian whaling plant in the Southern Ocean.

At the outbreak of war, Isidor was back in Norway. While planning to escape to Great Britain, he was reported and arrested by the German security police on 19 April 1941. He then spent 7 months in Møllergata 19 before being sentenced to 4 years' penal servitude by a German court-martial in November of the same year. In January 1942 he was then transferred to the Fuhlsbüttel penitentiary in Hamburg. One year later he was transferred to Auschwitz. In the final phase of the war, Isidor Rubinstein was shot and killed during a prisoner transport on 27 March 1945. Rubinstein's grave was recovered after the war and the urn was moved home to Norway by the Norwegian military mission. He is buried at Helsfyr in Oslo.

Isidor's brothers, Salomon, Willy (b. 1911) and David (b. 1910) were all active in the resistance during World War II. David and Willy were both affiliated with the Scotland Brigade. Salomon fought, among other things, in the battle of El Alamein (with the South African forces). All survived the war. Isidor's mother, Rebecca and sister Elsa (b. 1913) managed to escape to Sweden in November 1942.