Kurt Grawi

Grawi was a trained banker and until 1931 worked as a stockbroker with power of attorney at the Darmstädter und Nationalbank (Danat-Bank). After the 1931 bank crisis and merger with the Dresdner Bank, and as a result of the global economic crisis, Grawi lost his position there and became an independent entrepreneur. He participated in various companies and himself headed the "Gesellschaft für den Bau medico-technischer Apparate m.b.H.“ based in Berlin.

Grawi assembled a small art collection, most of which he was forced to sell in a so-called “Jew auction” at the Leo Spik auction house in Berlin in 1937. Arrested on Kristallnacht, the night of the pogroms against Jews, he was incarcerated in Sachsenhausen concentration camp in 1938. After his release, he escaped to Chile in 1939. His wife and step-sons followed him later that year.