Dannie Heineman

Dannie N. Heineman (23 November 1872 – 31 January 1962) was a Belgian-American engineer and businessman.^[1] In 1905, he became the managing director of Sofina, which at the time was a small investment trust. He remained the head of Sofina for 50 years, during which Sofina grew into a large international public utility engineering management and holding company. He retired from the position in 1955 at the age of 83.^[2]

In 1939, while living in Belgium, Dannie Heineman managed to get the Luxembourg government to open its closed borders and admit approximately 100 Jewish families from Germany. The persuasive argument was that hotels in Luxembourg were empty and he would pay for the rooms and give the Jews an allowance, and they would not be working and taking jobs away from Luxembourg workers. This arrangement worked until 10 May 1940 when Hitler invaded. At that point his assistant Mr. Schmidt made a final six months payment to the families. Among the families was the physicist Ernst Ising who survived the war.^{[citation needed]}