JUDr. Franz Josef Kohner

• Reference: MyHeritage Family Trees - SmartCopy: Jul 11 2016, 10:19:18 UTC

Graduation: https://is.cuni.cz/webapps/archiv/public/book/bo/1971898055542710/6...

On 26th July 1939, the Kohner family - JUDr. Franz and Edith with their little daughters Ruth and Dinah managed to escape Czechoslovakia. Franz Kohner became administrative manager of the Millisle refugee farm in Northern Ireland. There he lived with his family and took care for the Kindertransport children.

After leaving the farm, the family settled in Belfast, where their son, Billy was born. Sadly, Dinah having qualified as a doctor at Queens University, died after a plane crash while taking medicine into the jungle in Ecuador in 1964. She had been working on the hospital ship “Hope” as a volunteer doctor bringing medicine to under developed countries.

Franzi and Edith went on to create a successful children’s clothing company, Belart of Belfast, in which Billy and Ruth became directors and continued after Franzi’s death in 1972. Earlier that year Dr Franz Kohner received the OBE (Order of the British Empire) in recognition of his work on the farm, with the forces, and his services to Northern Ireland with the family business and through Belfast Rotary club.