Franz Kahn (Zionist)

Franz Kahn (born June 13, 1895 in Pilsen ; † October 1944 in Auschwitz concentration camp ) was a Czechoslovak Zionist and association official who was a victim of the Holocaust .

Life

After graduating from high school, Kahn began studying law. He took part in the First World War as a soldier in the Joint Army and lost his left arm due to a serious war injury. After the war he completed his law degree.

Already during his school days he was involved in the Zionist youth movement Blau-Weiß . From 1921 he was general secretary of the Zionist organizations of Czechoslovakia with headquarters in Moravian Ostrau and director of the office of the Zionist Congress. He was a co-organizer of the Zionist Congresses. He worked in the Hechaluz office and worked closely with Jakob Edelstein to encourage young people to emigrate to Palestine.

After the German annexation of the Czech Republic in mid-March 1939, Kahn stayed in his homeland and refused to emigrate in order to continue to represent Jewish interests there. He and his wife Olga moved from Mährisch Ostrau to Prague at the end of 1938 ; his daughter and son emigrated to England in October 1939. Kahn and Edelstein were the official contact persons for the Zionist organizations as well as the security service (SD) and government agencies. After Edelmann was sent to the Theresienstadt ghetto in December 1941 , Kahn and his wife were able to work for the Jewish Community in Prague for another year . At the end of January 1943, Kahn was arrested there together with Richard Friedmann and deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto, her wives one day later. Both Friedmann and Kahn did not want to take on a leading role in the Jewish self-government in Theresienstadt. However, Kahn took over the post of head of lectures in the cultural department with a focus on Zionism and Judaism. According to Hans Günther Adler , he was one of the most talented Zionists in the ghetto. Efforts from abroad to obtain his release were unsuccessful.

On October 4, 1944, Kahn was deported with other Jewish functionaries to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp and gassed there immediately upon arrival .

Fonts

Treatises on Private International Law , 1928.

literature

Israel Gutman (Ed.): Encyclopedia of the Holocaust - The persecution and murder of European Jews , Piper Verlag, Munich / Zurich 1998, 3 volumes, ISBN 3-492-22700-7 . (Entry: Kahn, Franz in Volume 2, p. 727 f.)
Susanne Blumesberger, Michael Doppelhofer, Gabriele Mauthe: Handbook of Austrian authors of Jewish origin from the 18th to the 20th century . Volume 2: J-R. Edited by the Austrian National Library. Saur, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-598-11545-8 , p. 626.
Hans G. Adler: Theresienstadt. The face of a coercive community 1941–1945 ; Epilogue Jeremy Adler; Wallstein, Göttingen 2005 ISBN 3-89244-694-6 (reprint of the 2nd verb. Edition Mohr-Siebeck, Tübingen 1960. 1st edition ibid. 1955).

Web links

Kahn, Franz In: The Theresienstadt Lexicon at www.ghetto-theresienstadt.de
Kahn, Franz at http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org
The Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names: Franz Kahn at www.yadvashem.org

Individual evidence

↑ Life data according to Susanne Blumesberger, Michael Doppelhofer, Gabriele Mauthe: Handbook of Austrian authors of Jewish origin, 18th to 20th centuries. Volume 2: J-R. Edited by the Austrian National Library. Saur, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-598-11545-8 , p. 626. The date of birth is e.g. E.g. at Yad Vashem the 13th January 1895 is given.

personal data
SURNAME	Kahn, Franz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Austrian Zionist and association official
DATE OF BIRTH	June 13, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH	Pilsen
DATE OF DEATH	October 1944
Place of death	Auschwitz concentration camp

[1] Life data according to Susanne Blumesberger, Michael Doppelhofer, Gabriele Mauthe: Handbook of Austrian authors of Jewish origin, 18th to 20th centuries. Volume 2: J-R. Edited by the Austrian National Library. Saur, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-598-11545-8 , p. 626. The date of birth is e.g. E.g. at Yad Vashem the 13th January 1895 is given.