Hans Kroch

Hans Meyer Zwi Kroch (14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-Jewish, and later Israeli, banker, entrepreneur, and property developer.

In 1923 he was a founding and supervisory board member of the Leipzig Trade Fair and Exhibition AG.

As the main shareholder in the AG für Haus- und Grundimmobilien, Kroch additionally financed the construction of the Krochsiedlung in Leipzig-Gohlis in 1929–1930, a residential complex in the classical modern style, which was unofficially named after him.

In the course of the "Aryanization" of German companies by the Nazis, Kroch was arrested on 10 November 1938 in the wake of Kristallnacht and transported first to Buchenwald and later Sachsenhausen.

Kroch managed to escape to Amsterdam with his children, later emigrating to Argentina and finally to Israel, where he built the hotel complex Eretz Hatzvi ("Deerland", later renamed "Holyland") in the Jerusalem suburb of Bayit veGan.