(JTA) — A millionaire widow from New Jersey has pledged to donate at least $22 million to the zoo in Cologne, Germany in memory of her Jewish husband, a Holocaust survivor. Elizabeth Reichert, 93, was born in Cologne and met her husband, Arnulf, also a Cologne native, during World War II while he was hiding from the Nazis and she was working with the German underground resistance. The couple married a year after the war ended and then lived for five years in Israel before leaving for New Jersey, where they ran a pet shop.
Prior to Arnulf’s death in 1998, the couple decided to leave their fortune to the zoo. The zoo said it is planning to name its South American section after him.