Meier Kahn
Meier Kahn (born May 12, 1886 in Gemünden am Main ; † 1943 in Auschwitz concentration camp ) was a German lawyer , he was a victim of National Socialism .
Life
1886-1933
The son of the Jewish businessman Samuel Kahn (born April 1, 1852 in Mittelinn ; † May 19, 1929 ibid) and his wife Jette (Jettel) born. Kahn (born June 26, 1859 in Mittelinn; † January 29, 1932 there) grew up in Mittelinn, where he attended elementary school and then the grammar school in Fulda . After graduating from high school , he studied law at the Julius Maximilians University of Würzburg , and in between he did his military service. In 1915 he was drafted, as a vice sergeant he fell ill with malaria and was later awarded the Iron Cross, 2nd class . After the end of the war in 1918 he continued his studies in Würzburg and at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich . After the state examination in 1919, he first became third public prosecutor in 1920 at the Ansbach regional court and at the Nuremberg-Fürth regional court . Since 1925 he has worked as a district judge in Ansbach and on May 1, 1929 became the first public prosecutor at the Aschaffenburg district court .
On November 19, 1922 he married in Schlüchtern Lilly (Lilly) Sylvia Stern (born March 18, 1900 in Schlüchtern) daughter of Jewish businessman Leo Stern (born September 28, 1867 in Schlüchtern, † 26 October 1937 in Frankfurt / Main) and Judith born Wolf (born February 12, 1871 in Barranquilla ( Colombia ), † June 11, 1937 in Aschaffenburg). On August 27, 1923 son Robert Leo was born in Fürth ; he died on April 24, 2001 in Melbourne ( Australia ).
Meier Kahn was a member of the Jewish student association AV Veda in Würzburg, a member of the Reich Association of Jewish Front-Line Soldiers and a member of the Association of German Jews . He was also a board member of the B'nai B'rith lodge in Aschaffenburg.
In 1932, he led the investigation into a spectacular art theft case in Aschaffenburg. It is thanks to his forensic instinct that part of the stolen works was brought back to Aschaffenburg a year later. In recognition of his position, he was promoted to the district judge.
1933-1943
Back at his workplace, the "Held von Aschaffenburg" was removed from his position in 1934 and deported to the land registry. The so-called front fighter privilege in the law for the restoration of the civil service protected him from dismissal from civil service until December 31, 1935, when the First Ordinance on the Reich Citizenship Act came into force. He now supported many Jewish citizens free of charge with legal advice. He was arrested in 1937 in an action against the lodge. His efforts to emigrate failed. On May 17, 1939 he and his wife Lilly succeeded in sending their only son Robert on one of the last child transports to Westgate-on-Sea in England ; from there he later emigrated to Australia.
Meier Kahn was chairman of the General Jewish Gymnastics and Sports Club in Aschaffenburg in 1934, deputy chairman of the Jewish Community of Aschaffenburg in 1937/38, then first chairman until it was forced to end and dissolved in May 1941, the district office's representative.
On October 29, 1942, Meier and Lilly Kahn were resettled to Würzburg, assigned to the so-called Jewish house at Bibrastrasse 6 and from there on June 17, 1943, deported to the Auschwitz extermination camp and murdered.
progeny
Son Robert married Mozelle John, who was born in Mumbai - Bombay ( India ) in Melbourne (Australia) in 1949/50 (April 13, 1922 to July 23, 1983); Daughter of Samuel John Ashkenazy.
In November 2008 Alec Kahn visited his grandfather's place of work together with his stepmother, following an invitation from the city of Aschaffenburg on the 70th anniversary of the November pogroms in 1938 . He was also shown the valuable graphics that his grandfather Meier Kahn had brought back to Aschaffenburg in 1932, like his father, who visited his childhood city in 1984, twenty-four years earlier.
Art theft
On the night of June 22nd, 1932 (at least two people) climb unnoticed, although the castle is controlled by police patrols (police station in the castle), up an ivy grate on the Main side. Past the barred windows on the first floor to the second floor, where they smashed a window, entered the museum, broke out a door panel and penetrated the new graphic cabinet. Very valuable, freshly restored engravings, miniatures, incunabula and manuscripts were presented here in a special exhibition. The exhibited objects were of less interest, however, they broke open fireproof closets in which even more valuable stocks were stored. The burglars stole a total of 325 works, including 86 valuable Rembrandt etchings and 239 manuscripts by German, Italian, Dutch and French masters from the 16th to 18th centuries. "Some of the thieves had torn out some of the art sheets stuck to cardboard - apparently in a hurry - very improperly, so that many of the stolen sheets were damaged (...)" Main-Echo quote from the observer. Several suspects have been arrested, interrogated and released. In October 1933 ten graphics were offered for sale in Dresden. The director of the Dresden Zwinger (1924–1941) art historian Kurt Zoege von Manteuffel , to whom the works of art were presented for assessment, recognized them as Rembrandt sheets from Aschaffenburg. The matter was reported to Aschaffenburg via the Bavarian Ministry of Culture . Public prosecutor Meier Kahn released from further investigations into the “thief hunt”, travels to Dresden disguised as an art lover, to buy the pictures and to arrest the fence. Together with Mrs. Barthel, secretary of a wealthy businessman in Dresden, to whom the graphics were offered for sale, Kahn wanted to acquire the pictures. When meeting the fence, explained that he still owns eighteen other works, but they were deposited in France. Together they travel to Strasbourg , while Kahn pays 1000 Reichsmarks for the 18 works of art, Ms. Barthel tries to persuade the fence to procure more pictures. A total of 38 is to be paid for the boat to pay 650 Reichsmarks per picture. At the handover, the fence is arrested by the French police. Meier Kahn managed to get all the stolen goods, for which he received a high reward and promotion to the district judge . At the trial on September 18, 1935, there were on the one hand Paul Falk and Robert Franke as defendants, on the other hand the police and public prosecutors. One of the thirty witnesses included a boat who was heard during the trial.
The artist Paul Falk (thief), (born June 5, 1907 in Garrin , who is currently serving a prison sentence of several years in Ziegenheim near Berlin for other thefts and burglary in Hohenbuchau Castle near Wiesbaden , was the “crime of serious theft in relapse acquitted for lack of evidence. ”Robert Franke (Hehler), (born October 19, 1894 in Dresden )) was sentenced to eight years in prison for“ continued, commercial stealing ”.
On July 28, 1954, the large criminal chamber of the Hechingen district court convicted the "professional criminal " Paul Falk, alias Paolo Falk - Del Monte, Brazilian plantation owner, alias Count Cyrill von Kasloff, for robbing crown jewels, "worth 1 million DM" (Kronschatz Burg Hohenzollern ) six years in prison with preventive detention and deprivation of civil rights. The 48-year-old Paul Falk, who had been tried twelve times and was involved in a long chain of thefts, forgery of documents, burglaries and robberies and who had been in prison for twenty years, said to the prosecutor full of “professional pride” during the inspection of the crime scene at the Hohenzollernburg - “I see something of my craft ”.
Graphic collection
This is part of the graphic collection of the Kurmainzischen Obersthofmeister and Imperial Privy Councilor Lothar Franz von Erthal, saved from the French revolutionary troops in 1793 (around 20,000 graphic prints and around 200 drawings, including 256 Rembrandt etchings) dating from 1923, in view of the Occupation of the Ruhr by France, together with the Gemäldegalerie were brought to Munich. The other part (12,500 works) was destroyed in an air raid on July 21, 1944 in which the Neue Pinakothek and the holdings of the graphic collection stored in it were almost completely destroyed. ( State Gallery Aschaffenburg # Graphic Collection )
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Kahn I., Samuel (1929) - Altengronau. Jewish graves in Hesse. In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).
- ^ Kahn II, Jette (1932) - Altengronau. Jewish graves in Hesse. In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).
- ↑ Aschaffenburg city registration card
- ↑ Main-Echo from November 15, 2008
- ^ Observer am Main No. 142 of June 23, 1932
- ↑ Würzburger Generalanzeiger No. 142 of June 23, 1932
- ↑ Munich Latest News No. 168 of June 23, 1932
- ↑ Börsenblatt für den Deutschen Buchhandel No. 148 of June 28, 1932
- ^ Aschaffenburger Zeitung of September 16, 1935
- ↑ Aschaffenburger Zeitung No. 219 of September 23, 1935
- ↑ Main-Post Würzburg No. 166 of July 22, 1954
- ↑ Aschaffenburger Volksblatt No. 170 of July 29, 1954
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Kahn, Meier |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German lawyer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 12, 1886 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Gemünden am Main |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1943 |
| Place of death | Auschwitz concentration camp |