By Jane Smith
HIGHLAND BEACH — Horst Susskind, a self-made man who joined the Dutch Underground during World War II, died Sept. 29. He was 89 when he suffered a massive heart attack, his daughter, Elizabeth Susskind, said.
Her father was “a pillar of strength to the family,” she said.
Mr. Susskind remained a detail person to the end, his daughter said. Even though he was not in ill health, about one week before he died he talked about his final resting place in the United States. He wanted to be cremated and have his remains interred in a cemetery with a tree, where it would not be noisy from road or airport traffic.
He was born in Berlin on Sept. 15, 1924, to Maximilian Susskind and Elizabeth Kramer Susskind. Prior to World War II, his family, with four older siblings, enjoyed the culturally rich lifestyle of Berlin.
In 1938, as a result of the Nazi incursion, the family was forced to sell their belongings and moved to Amsterdam, Netherlands. After the Nazi occupation in Netherlands, the family dispersed and only one sister and her family managed to land by boat in Cuba.
Mr. Susskind escaped to the Dutch Underground, living on local farms and smuggling arms and food to the resistance fighters. During this period he married and had three sons.
In the early ’50s, he moved to the United States, where he started his own successful business and became an American citizen, raising four children with his second wife, Maud.
During the mid-1980s he built a second residence in Switzerland where he started yet again a new business in international trade. He later established a home base in Florida, where he met and married his third wife, Duenpen, and raised two sons.
His broad experiences in survival, in raising children, in business and in life gave him knowledge he readily shared with his family and friends. His life was full and he enjoyed every aspect of living to the very end, his daughter said.
Mr. Susskind is survived by his wife of 25 years, Duenpen; his nine children: Reginald and Raymond, of Amsterdam; Richard (Judy) Susskind, of Montreal; Elizabeth (Sergey) Susskind Komov, of Highland Beach and Oberaegeri, Switzerland; Horst Jr., of New York; Kenneth (Nada), of Great Falls, Va.; Michele (Victor) Susskind Bocharnikov, of Oakton, Va.; Bernard, of Pittsburgh; and Maximilian, attending Princeton University; ex-wife Maud, of Boca Raton; seven grandchildren; five great-grandchildren; and multiple nieces and nephews.
His remains were buried Oct. 6 near an oak tree in Eternal Light Cemetery in suburban Boynton Beach.
As he was a lifelong music lover, his family suggests donations in his name to Dimensional Harmony Chorus, Boynton Beach High School, 4975 Park Ridge Blvd., Boynton Beach, FL 33426.
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