Obituaries
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2007:
Dietrich von Haugwitz, 79, died on June 26, 2007 at his
home in Durham, North Carolina. Von Haugwitz, credited by Peter
Muller of Wildlife Watch as “the originator of computer-based animal
rights e-mail lists,” was “born into a German aristocratic family in
Silesia,” Muller wrote, “a region that became part of Poland after
the shift of borders at the end of World War II.” Drafted into the
Germany army at age 17, near the end of World War II, von Haugwitz
“saw little action, but once almost got killed” by a British air
attack, recalled Muller. Post-war, von Haugwitz studied music. A
church in Minnesota sponsored his emigration to the U.S. in 1956.
Moving to Hollywood, Calif-ornia, in 1957, he worked as a pianist,
gave piano lessons, and met his wife Eva while acting in a German
theater. They married in 1960. Turning from piano-playing to
computer programming, they relocated to North Carolina in 1971.
Witnessing a bullfight in Mexico and attending a lecture by The Case
for Animal Rights author Tom Regan led von Haugwitz to join the North
Carolina Network for Animals in 1983, and to found a Durham chapter,
which he headed for about seven years. Recalled von Haugwitz to
Eternal Trebinka author Charles Patterson, “I have always been upset
about so many Germans I knew who, at the end of the war, said, in
effect, ‘But we had no idea! We really didn’t know anything about
Auschwitz and what happened to the Jews.'” Von Haugwitz paralleled
their denial to the denial that allows people to eat meat. His last
campaign was against dog-chaining, and included winning custody of
Bessie, a neglected dog who had lived her whole life on a six-foot
chain until von Haughwitz adopted her. Eva von Haugwitz died in
2003. Von Haugwitz is survived by their daughter Joanne Erznoznik,
of North Carolina. As she works for much of the year abroad, In
Defense of Animals was at the ANIMAL PEOPLE deadline trying to help
her find a new home for Bessie.