Joseph Goldwasser | |
Birth Place: | Łódź, Poland |
Citizenship: | PolandUnited States |
Occupation: | Businessman |
Known For: | Investigation of the lynching of Robert Mallard |
Spouse: | Draza |
Joseph Goldwasser (–) was a Americanized Polish Jewish businessman. He is known for leading an unofficial investigation in the lynching of Robert Mallard.
Joseph Goldwasser was born grew up in Łódź, Poland, in a family of 10 children. In 1938, when he was 19, he fled to Russia by himself after hearing a warning of the occupation of Poland. He spent World War II in Russia, including a year inside a Gulag. After the war, he fled to Uzbekistan.[1]
Goldwasser later moved to Cleveland, Ohio, and married Draza Goldwasser. He ran a tire business called "Trey Packing"[2] in an old synagogue. The synagogue later burnt down, and he remodeled the building into a department store named the "Peerless Department Store".[3] [4] Goldwasser often employed African Americans who moved from the Southern United States. He was a member of the NAACP's Cleveland branch, and launched an unofficial investigation on the lynching of Robert Mallard.[5]
Goldwasser died, at the age of 52 from a heart attack.