GOLD, HUGO

GOLD, HUGO (1895–1974), publisher and historian. Gold was born in Vienna. He studied philosophy at the University of Vienna and soon after was drafted into the army. With the beginning of World War i, Gold served as a commander on the Eastern Front. He was captured by the Russian Army and sent to Siberia, from where he returned in 1918. In 1924 he became the head of the publishing house Juedischer Buch- und Kunstverlag, formerly owned by his uncle Max *Hickl. From 1924 to 1939 he was the publisher and editor of the journal Juedische Volksstimme, and from 1931 to 1936 of the historical journal Zeitschrift fuer die Geschichte der Juden in der Tschechoslowakei. In 1940 Gold settled in Palestine. After World War ii he established in Tel Aviv the Olamenu publishing house, which concentrated on books in the German language relating to Central European Jewry. From 1964 he published and edited the Zeitschrift fuer die Geschichte der Juden (Tel Aviv). Gold's main contributions as a historian are works on the history of the Jews in Czechoslovakia, Austria, and Bukovina, including Die Juden und Judengemeinde Bratislava in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart (1932); Geschichte der Juden in Wien (1966); Max Brod, Ein Gedenkbuch 1884–1968 (1969); and Gedenkbuch der untergegangenen Judengemeinden des Burgenlandes (1970). The works he wrote and edited are a major source of information about the destroyed Jewish communities in Central Europe.

add. bibliography:

E. Gottgetreu, in: Illustrierte Neue Welt, 8/9 (1975), 46; E. Pistiner, in: Illustrierte Neue Welt, 3 (1988), 15–16.