Esther Cohn

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Esther Cohn (born September 18, 1926 in Offenburg ; † October 18, 1944 in Auschwitz concentration camp ) was a young girl who was murdered during the Shoah (German persecution of Jews). Her diary has been preserved and is in Yad Vashem as a witness of the times .

Life

Esther Lore Cohn was the eldest of the three daughters of the wine and spirits representative Eduard Cohn and his wife Sylvia, née. Oberbrunner. Eduard Cohn headed a Zionist group in Offenburg; his wife wrote poetry and gave lectures on literature etc. in the synagogue , which was housed in the former Salmen inn.

Esther Cohn's maternal grandparents also lived in Offenburg: Emma Oberbrunner, geb. Kahn was one of the first Jewish children born in Offenburg after the Jews were allowed to settle in the city in 1862. Her husband, who came from Trappstadt, came to Offenburg in 1884 and was involved in politics and in the Jewish community. His main occupation, however, was a wine merchant and also ran a brandy distillery.

Esther Cohn grew up with her two younger sisters Myriam and Eva at Wilhelmstrasse 15 in Offenburg. As a small child she fell ill with polio and had to be treated for several months in a hospital in Karlsruhe . Her grandfather Eduard Oberbrunner, who had paid for part of the high treatment costs, had to give up his business in 1931 and died the following year.

During and after the violent measures against Jews (pogrom) organized across the Reich by the National Socialist regime in November 1938, most of the Jewish men were arrested in Offenburg and deported to the Dachau concentration camp in Munich . Esther Cohn's father, Eduard Cohn, was imprisoned there from November 10 to December 20, 1938 and was released after he had promised to leave Germany within six months. In May 1939 he emigrated to England. His efforts to catch up with his wife and children were thwarted by the outbreak of World War II .

The Antonienheim

Sylvia Cohn and her three daughters came to Munich in October 1939 after the Jews in the Baden region near the border had been ordered to leave their home. The accommodation and care of these people was organized in Munich by Else Behrend-Rosenfeld . The Cohn family initially stayed at Luisenstrasse 3 with Rut and Gedda Engelmann, later Sylvia, Myriam and Eva Cohn were with Dr. Steinhard quartered at Tengstrasse 27. Esther Cohn, on the other hand, for whom the long way to school by tram was too difficult because of the permanent damage after her illness, was accommodated in the Antonienheim and stayed there when her mother and her two younger daughters moved back to Offenburg in March 1940.

Esther Cohn's mother and sisters were deported to Gurs in October 1940 and were later taken to a collection camp in Rivesaltes . Sylvia Cohn was transported from there via Drancy to Auschwitz and murdered there on September 30, 1942. The two girls were rescued by an aid organization. They survived the Third Reich in a children's home in Ascona and met their father again after the end of the war.

Esther Cohn was in contact with her family for a long time, but did not hear about her mother's death. She graduated from the eight-grade elementary school in the Antonienheim and worked in the children's home after graduating in March 1941. The home, originally founded for social cases, was occupied by Jewish children of various ages and was run by Alice Bendix and Hedwig Jacobi . As early as 1938, at the request of the city youth welfare office, it should have been dissolved, but this could be delayed.

In November 1941 numerous children from the home and their teachers were deported to Kaunas and murdered. Esther Cohn, who had to help with the preparation of the children for the "departure", noted this occurrence only succinctly and briefly in her diary; However, she did not know anything about the fate of the deportees. In April 1942, the half-empty house had to be completely cleared. The former Antonienheim was taken over and used by the NS-Aktion Lebensborn . It was destroyed in the course of the war.

The last residents of the home, including Esther Cohn, first came to the “ Milbertshofen Jewish Camp ”. Esther Cohn took her diary there, which her mother had given her on Hanukkah in 1939. From there, she managed to send the diary and other personal papers to Hermine Keller, the family's former domestic worker. She kept the documents and handed them over to Esther Cohn's youngest sister Eva after the end of the war.

The last entry in the diary is from June 2, 1942 and begins with the words: “Now they have even taken the children's home away from us and we arrived here in moving trucks with mixed feelings. The rest of our home are 13 children and Miss Jacobi and Miss Bendix. All other children and women were born on April 1st. J. evacuated and immediately afterwards the home was closed. We had our hands full [...] "Apparently the teachers managed to create a somewhat relaxed atmosphere for their protégés even in this situation, because Esther Cohn continued to report:" It's very nice here and we live in a room in a barrack that Miss Bendix furnished very nicely [...] I've been working in the office for about 4 weeks and I'm very happy there and have a lot of fun at work. Today Mr. Metzger scolded me a bit, but immediately afterwards he was very cute to me again, as always [...] There are also a couple of big boys here and I picked one up again straight away. "

At the end of July 1942, Esther Cohn was deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto on Transport II / 20 . She lived there for more than two years. Written testimonies from the young girl have also survived from this period. The text on a card she wrote to her youngest sister on her 13th birthday in the summer of 1944 was quoted in a letter to her father in England. Among other things, it says: “I'm doing very well, don't worry. There are other girls in the room with me. ”In August 1944, Esther Cohn wrote to the former housekeeper:“ I haven't been working for a long time, but I read a lot and go for a walk. ”At that time, she gave the“ youth home ”as the address. at Hauptstrasse 14 in Theresienstadt. Esther Cohn sent these postal messages shortly after a visit to Theresienstadt by a commission of the International Red Cross, which was led to believe that the world was ideal there. A little later, the last transports from Theresienstadt to the Auschwitz extermination camp began, where the mass killings continued until November 2, 1944, before the Russian army approached. Esther Cohn was taken away on the deportation train that left Theresienstadt on October 16, 1944, and gassed on arrival in Auschwitz.

Reactions to the diary

Esther Cohn's diary was published by Martin Ruch. The publication also contains additions and reactions from their former roommates in the Antonienheim. Werner Grube, for example, who was apparently astonished by the often positive tone of her reports, explained her rather laconic entry to the order that the children had to wear Jewish stars , assuming that Esther had “wanted to see positive aspects in her notes”. However, Grube was very surprised that she said only a few words about the removal of the many children in April 1942. He was astonished “that Esther mentioned the terrible events connected with the first deportation from the home in just two sentences. She was one of those who had to do with the last care of these children [...] There were sometimes bad farewell scenes [...] There were several children who recognized the seriousness of the situation [...] "Also Werner Grube considers Esther Cohn's critical remark about the Eastern Jews, with whom she came into contact for the first time in the camp in Milbertshofen, to be quite unreflective. The following should be corrected: In the Milbertshofen camp, Eastern Jews were housed in a separate barrack under completely inadequate conditions. This barrack was locked, the inmates could not leave it. Instead of a toilet, there was just a bucket in it, which was emptied at certain times. The people had no opportunity to wash [...] For the propaganda paper ' Der Stürmer ', individual, meanwhile neglected-looking people were taken out and photographed [...] "Esther Cohn had written about the inmates of this barrack:" And here Unfortunately, one notices how true the Aryans are when they say that the Jews quarrel so terribly among themselves. Next to our 'little room' is the Polish booth and a stench and screaming always comes out, it cannot be reproduced. "

Commemoration

Stolpersteine were laid for her, her mother and an aunt in front of Esther Cohn's parents' house at Wilhelmstrasse 15 in Offenburg . A street in Offenburg was named after her.

literature

  • Martin Ruch: "We have now been starred". The diary of Esther Cohn (1926–1944) and the children from Munich's Antonienheim. KulturAgentur, Offenburg 2006, ISBN 978-3-8334-5473-8 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Esther Cohn, Offenburg , on www.ardmediathek.de ( Memento of the original from May 28, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ardmediathek.de
  2. ↑ Martin Ruch: "In the meantime we have been starred". The diary of Esther Cohn (1926–1944) and the children from Munich's Antonienheim. KulturAgentur, Offenburg 2006, ISBN 978-3-8334-5473-8 , p. 16.
  3. ↑ Martin Ruch: "In the meantime we have been starred". The diary of Esther Cohn (1926–1944) and the children from Munich's Antonienheim. KulturAgentur, Offenburg 2006, ISBN 978-3-8334-5473-8 , pp. 14-18.
  4. ↑ Martin Ruch: "In the meantime we have been starred". The diary of Esther Cohn (1926–1944) and the children from Munich's Antonienheim. KulturAgentur, Offenburg 2006, ISBN 978-3-8334-5473-8 , p. 29 f.
  5. ↑ Martin Ruch: "In the meantime we have been starred". The diary of Esther Cohn (1926–1944) and the children from Munich's Antonienheim. KulturAgentur, Offenburg 2006, ISBN 978-3-8334-5473-8 , pp. 32–36.
  6. ↑ Martin Ruch: "In the meantime we have been starred". The diary of Esther Cohn (1926–1944) and the children from Munich's Antonienheim. KulturAgentur, Offenburg 2006, ISBN 978-3-8334-5473-8 , pp. 38-46.
  7. ↑ Martin Ruch, “In the meantime we have been starred”. The diary of Esther Cohn (1926–1944) and the children from Munich's Antonienheim , KulturAgentur, Offenburg 2006, ISBN 978-3-8334-5473-8 , p. 90
  8. ↑ Martin Ruch: "In the meantime we have been starred". The diary of Esther Cohn (1926–1944) and the children from Munich's Antonienheim. KulturAgentur, Offenburg 2006, ISBN 978-3-8334-5473-8 , p. 91 f.
  9. ↑ Martin Ruch: "In the meantime we have been starred". The diary of Esther Cohn (1926–1944) and the children from Munich's Antonienheim. KulturAgentur, Offenburg 2006, ISBN 978-3-8334-5473-8 , p. 104.
  10. ↑ Martin Ruch: "In the meantime we have been starred". The diary of Esther Cohn (1926–1944) and the children from Munich's Antonienheim. KulturAgentur, Offenburg 2006, ISBN 978-3-8334-5473-8 , p. 105.
  11. ↑ Martin Ruch: "In the meantime we have been starred". The diary of Esther Cohn (1926–1944) and the children from Munich's Antonienheim. KulturAgentur, Offenburg 2006, ISBN 978-3-8334-5473-8 , p. 119.
  12. ↑ Martin Ruch: "In the meantime we have been starred". The diary of Esther Cohn (1926–1944) and the children from Munich's Antonienheim. KulturAgentur, Offenburg 2006, ISBN 978-3-8334-5473-8 , p. 127.
  13. ↑ Martin Ruch: "In the meantime we have been starred". The diary of Esther Cohn (1926–1944) and the children from Munich's Antonienheim. KulturAgentur, Offenburg 2006, ISBN 978-3-8334-5473-8 , p. 127 f.
  14. ↑ Martin Ruch: "In the meantime we have been starred". The diary of Esther Cohn (1926–1944) and the children from Munich's Antonienheim. KulturAgentur, Offenburg 2006, ISBN 978-3-8334-5473-8 , p. 129 f.
  15. ↑ Martin Ruch: "In the meantime we have been starred". The diary of Esther Cohn (1926–1944) and the children from Munich's Antonienheim. KulturAgentur, Offenburg 2006, ISBN 978-3-8334-5473-8 , p. 94.
  16. ^ Esther Cohn: The last card on www.swr.de
personal data
SURNAME Cohn, Esther
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cohn, Esther Lore
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German contemporary witness and victim of the Holocaust
DATE OF BIRTH September 18, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Offenburg
DATE OF DEATH October 18, 1944
Place of death Auschwitz concentration camp