Norbert Brenner

Norbert Brenner, a Holocaust survivor who lived and worked in Washington DC and Maryland for more than 70 years, passed away quietly after a brief illness on October 26 at the Greater Hebrew Home of Washington DC. He was 89 years old.

Mr. Brenner was born in Cologne, Germany on September 1, 1924. To escape the Nazi regime, the Brenner family relocated to Rome, Italy in 1933, and then to the United States in 1938. He served in the U.S. Army from 1946 to 1947.

In 1939, Mr. Brenner and his family opened Brenner Photo Co. in Washington, DC, which became very successful and was relocated to Pennsylvania Avenue in 1945. Mr. Brenner held a variety of sales positions at the store until it was sold in 1956. Afterwards, Mr. Brenner held sales management positions at a variety of instrumentation and engineering businesses in the DC region. He lived in Hyattsville, MD, for more than 30 years before moving to the Greater Hebrew Home of Washington DC (in Rockville, MD), where he lived for more than 20 years.

Mr. Brenner was married to Ruth (Sternheim) Brenner, who was a member of the Dutch underground resistance movement during the Nazi occupation of Holland. She died of cancer in 1964.

Survivors include a son and daughter-in-law Robert and Barbara Brenner of Arlington, VA; a son and daughter-in-law and grandchildren Paul, Sara, Alec and Autumn Brenner of McLean, VA; and a brother and sister-in-law Berthold and Margaret Brenner of Montgomery County, MD.