Alice Jenny Cohn

Eintrag im »Gedenkbuch« des Bundesarchivs:

Cohn, Alice Jenny

geborene Gottschalk geboren am 27. Oktober 1887 in Berlin / - / Stadt Berlin wohnhaft in Hamburg

Deportation: ab Hamburg 08. November 1941, Minsk, Ghetto

Todesort: Minsk, Ghetto

cf.: http://www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de/index.php?MAIN_ID=7&BIO_ID=252

• Reference: MyHeritage Family Trees - SmartCopy: Sep 4 2021, 16:29:21 UTC
• Reference: MyHeritage Family Trees - SmartCopy: Sep 4 2021, 16:51:15 UTC
• Reference: Ancestry Genealogy - SmartCopy: Sep 4 2021, 16:55:03 UTC
• Reference: MyHeritage Family Trees - SmartCopy: Sep 5 2021, 16:32:03 UTC

  ---

Alice Jenny Cohn, née Gottschalk, related Isenberg, born October 27, 1887 in Berlin, deported to Minsk on November 8, 1941 Siegmund Cohn, born December 19, 1878 in Hamburg, deported to Minsk on November 8, 1941

Eppendorfer Baum 19

Alice Cohn was the daughter of Meir and Melanie Gottschalk, nee Pincus. When she was eleven years old, her mother died. Alice had three sisters - Eva, Hedwig and Antonie - and one brother, Walter. With the exception of Hedwig, who was able to emigrate to South America with her family, all of her siblings with spouses and children were later deported and murdered.

Alice grew up in a wealthy assimilated Berlin family who lived in Wilmersdorf and Charlottenburg. Regular vacation trips, including to Switzerland, were part of the lifestyle. Her father must have been a progressive man who saw the advantages of vocational training for women - Alice attended the "trade and trade school" of the Lette Association. In 1866 Wilhelm Adolf Lette founded the "Association for the Promotion of Employment Ability of Women" in Berlin with the aim of enabling unmarried women to gain an education and thus to work independently. They were able to train to become a seamstress, draftsman, artisan, typesetter or telegraph operator and later find a job in trade or industry.

Since Alice Gottschalk later worked as a scientific draftsman in the Eppendorfer Hospital, it can be assumed that she was a student at the Photography School. Scientific photographers (X-ray nurses, later medical-technical assistants) with various specializations (including scientific drawing from 1905) were trained here. Since the archive was badly destroyed in the last months of the Second World War, no student data from the time before 1945 is available. So it is not known when Alice attended school. We also don't know when and where she met the dentist Sally Isenberg, born May 29, 1876 in Marburg. The two married and on April 6, 1911 their daughter Melanie was born in Hamburg. Three years later - on 10. November 1914 - Sally Isenberg fell as a soldier in Flanders. Alice tried to make money making anatomical drawings and worked for the Eppendorfer Hospital. Their work was not preserved.

A few years after the war, Alice married the nine years older businessman Siegmund Cohn, son of Marcus and Marianne Cohn, née Hirschel. He lived together with his widowed mother and his one year younger sister Anna Franziska (see there) in slide no. 15 until his wedding in Overseas Raw Products "and owning his own company. It can therefore be assumed that he completed a commercial apprenticeship. Charlotte, daughter of Alice and Siegmund, was born on December 18, 1922. When I visited London in 2008, she remembered that her mother was painting and that many of her pictures and anatomical drawings were in her parents' apartment. Alice also portrayed her daughter, among other things. Unfortunately none of the pictures survived, but Charlotte inherited her mother's talent and also paints. Her parents had a happy marriage, she said. Since Alice played the piano well, the couple met regularly with Max and Goldi van der Walde (see Iwan van der Walde) to make music together. As a woman, Alice was not allowed to be a member of the Nehemia Nobel Lodge, but she was involved in its "Committee of the Sisters' Association", which helped Jewish emigrants from Eastern Europe on their way to America. As with Siegmund's sister, there was close contact with Alice's siblings. The connection was kept through visits to them in Berlin, Charlotte being the youngest of her cousins. Unfortunately none of the pictures survived, but Charlotte inherited her mother's talent and also paints. Her parents had a happy marriage, she said. Since Alice played the piano well, the couple met regularly with Max and Goldi van der Walde (see Iwan van der Walde) to make music together. As a woman, Alice was not allowed to be a member of the Nehemia Nobel Lodge, but she was involved in its "Committee of the Sisters' Association", which helped Jewish emigrants from Eastern Europe on their way to America. As with Siegmund's sister, there was close contact with Alice's siblings. The connection was kept through visits to them in Berlin, Charlotte being the youngest of her cousins. Unfortunately none of the pictures survived, but Charlotte inherited her mother's talent and also paints. Her parents had a happy marriage, she said. Since Alice played the piano well, the couple met regularly with Max and Goldi van der Walde (see Iwan van der Walde) to make music together. As a woman, Alice was not allowed to be a member of the Nehemia Nobel Lodge, but she was involved in its "Committee of the Sisters' Association", which helped Jewish emigrants from Eastern Europe on their way to America. As with Siegmund's sister, there was close contact with Alice's siblings. The connection was kept through visits to them in Berlin, Charlotte being the youngest of her cousins. Her parents had a happy marriage, she said. Since Alice played the piano well, the couple met regularly with Max and Goldi van der Walde (see Iwan van der Walde) to make music together. As a woman, Alice was not allowed to be a member of the Nehemia Nobel Lodge, but she was involved in its "Committee of the Sisters' Association", which helped Jewish emigrants from Eastern Europe on their way to America. As with Siegmund's sister, there was close contact with Alice's siblings. The connection was kept through visits to them in Berlin, Charlotte being the youngest of her cousins. Her parents had a happy marriage, she said. Since Alice played the piano well, the couple met regularly with Max and Goldi van der Walde (see Iwan van der Walde) to make music together. As a woman, Alice was not allowed to be a member of the Nehemia Nobel Lodge, but she was involved in its "Committee of the Sisters' Association", which helped Jewish emigrants from Eastern Europe on their way to America. As with Siegmund's sister, there was close contact with Alice's siblings. The connection was kept through visits to them in Berlin, Charlotte being the youngest of her cousins. As a woman, Alice was not allowed to be a member of the Nehemia Nobel Lodge, but she was involved in its "Committee of the Sisters' Association", which helped Jewish emigrants from Eastern Europe on their way to America. As with Siegmund's sister, there was close contact with Alice's siblings. The connection was kept through visits to them in Berlin, Charlotte being the youngest of her cousins. As a woman, Alice was not allowed to be a member of the Nehemia Nobel Lodge, but she was involved in its "Committee of the Sisters' Association", which helped Jewish emigrants from Eastern Europe on their way to America. As with Siegmund's sister, there was close contact with Alice's siblings. The connection was kept through visits to them in Berlin, Charlotte being the youngest of her cousins.

Melanie, Alice's daughter from her first marriage, completed a bank apprenticeship and worked at Warburg Bank in Berlin until she emigrated. She died in South Africa in spring 2008.

Due to the age difference of ten years and the spatial separation, the two half-sisters Charlotte and Melanie did not have a close relationship. Charlotte grew up very sheltered in Hamburg. Her parents did not let her feel the difficult situation in the 1930s. She described her father as "very German" and "very kind". He was very interested in history, in the First World War and in expeditions like Sven Hedin's. The Swedish geographer undertook several research trips to Central Asia over decades and discovered and explored, among other things, the Transhimalayas. In addition to scientific works, he wrote widely read popular travel books. Siegmund Cohn tried to bring these topics to his daughter. They talked about it on walks together in the city park.

After attending elementary school, Charlotte switched to the Curschmannstrasse girls' college. After two years she had to leave school because of hostility towards Jewish children and was first transferred to the higher Jewish girls 'school in Johnsallee, then to the Jewish girls' school in Carolinenstrasse. So that she could study later, her parents, who both spoke good English, sent her to England to go to boarding school. Probably a business friend of her father's had given the necessary guarantee. Little did they know when they left in October 1938 that they would never see each other again.

Although Charlotte was very attached to her parents, she was happy to be able to leave Germany. She was comfortable in the Quaker-run school and liked the other children. She played hockey and spoke enough English to get by. She stayed in correspondence with her parents. With the beginning of the Second World War, however, their situation changed dramatically. Her school was near the coast and therefore in a restricted area for foreigners, and the money stayed away from home - Charlotte had to leave boarding school and went to London, where she found it difficult to stay afloat. She later found work with the Jewish Refugee Committee. In 1944 she married and had two sons with her husband from Leipzig. "My parents lost their families and their youth.

Charlotte was able to fulfill at least one long-cherished wish. When her children were out of the house, she caught up with the longed-for studies. She took courses in humanities, humanities and cultural studies teaching and research at the Open University, the largest public university in Great Britain, which offers courses, certificates, diplomas and other university degrees in distance learning. In 1974 she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Honors.

After the war, Charlotte learned that her parents had been deported to Minsk. One of her former teachers from the elementary school in Breitenfelderstrasse, Valeska Wulf, disregarded the applicable regulations at the time and kept in touch with some of the parents of her Jewish pupils who had emigrated. She also continued to visit Alice and Siegmund Cohn. The day before the deportation, Alice gave her a box with family photos to keep for Charlotte, which was given on the occasion of a visit to Hamburg. Valeska Wulf, the only member of her college who did not join the NSDAP, is said to have been imprisoned during the war and used to repair bomb damage. It remains to be clarified whether this was related to their resistance.