Obituary: Ernst Ludwig Ehrlich

Ernst Ludwig Ehrlich, a Jewish religious philosopher who escaped the Nazis and became a European bridge-builder between Christians and Jews, has died at 86.

The Berlin-born Ehrlich did forced labour under the Nazis until he was able to find shelter with a Berlin couple and was smuggled into Switzerland.

He obtained his doctorate at Basel and later taught at universities in Switzerland and Germany.

From 1961 to 1994 he was European director of the Independent Order of B'nai B'rith and was later eulogised as being "the bridge to Jewish heritage before the Holocaust" and an important liberal thinker.