Search for Names, Places and Biographies

Selma und Julius Cohn, 1930er Jahre
© Privatbesitz

Selma Cohn (née Kohn) * 1871

Roonstraße 18 (Eimsbüttel, Hoheluft-West)

HIER WOHNTE
SELMA COHN
GEB. KOHN
JG. 1871
DEPORTIERT 1941
RIGA-JUNGFERNHOF
ERMORDET

further stumbling stones in Roonstraße 18:
Julius Cohn

Sara Selma Cohn, née Kohn, born 15.3.1871 in Hamburg, deported 6.12.1941 to Riga-Jungfernhof

Julius Cohn, born 7.3.1879 in Kandzen/East Prussia, deported 6.12.1941 to Riga-Jungfernhof

Roonstraße 18

Selma Cohn was the eldest daughter of the Jewish merchant Wilhelm Kohn. (1838-1920), who came from Lischwitz in Bohemia. He had moved to Altona around 1870 and ran a business buying and selling sacks. Selma's mother Therese, née Schreiber (1846-1932), who was also Jewish, was also born in Bohemia, in the small town of Beraun (now Beroun) near Prague. Frauke Steinhäuser describes the fate of Selma's siblings in her text about the youngest brother (see Hermann Kohn www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de).
These were:

Julius Albert, born 22 August 1873 in Altona, died as a refugee in Brussels at the end of the 1930s.

Regina, born 2 October 1875 in Altona, died 5 January 1902.

Leander, born 22 April 1876 in Altona, died of a wound in a military hospital in Greifswald 15 November 1914 during the First World War.

Martin, born on 30 March 1878 in Altona, survived the Theresienstadt ghetto and died on 24 September 1966 in Hamburg.
Emma, born 14 May 1882 in Altona, died 22 February 1958 in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Hermann, born 4 May 1885 in Altona, murdered 6 January 1945 in the Flossenbürg concentration camp.

We know nothing about Selma's childhood and youth. On 23 February 1906, she married the painter and painter's assistant Julius Cohn, eight years her junior, in Altona. The civil register lists her "without trade", meaning she had no profession. One of the two witnesses was her father.

Julius Cohn lived in Kiel and was the son of the "Handelsmann" (merchant) Emanuel Cohn and Elke Cohn, née Reihn. Both were Jewish and had already died by the time their son married. Julius Cohn's birthplace, Kandzen, was located in the East Prussian district of Darkehmen, which in 1871 (excluding the town of Darkehmen) had 22.669 inhabitants, 44 of whom were Jewish. (Today the area belongs to Russia and Poland.)

After her marriage, Selma moved to Kiel to live with her husband. From 1909, the couple resided at Preußerstraße 7, where they are also commemorated by stumbling stones. Their son Erich was born in Kiel 2 November 1910. He remained the only child.


From October 1917 to March 1926, Erich attended the 1st boys' secondary school in Kiel and from September 1918 also attended the Israelite religious school. In May 1926, he transferred to the State Commercial School in Hamburg, from which he graduated in September 1928.

The information from the Kiel City Archives that Julius Cohn moved from Pola to Kiel on 12 November 1918 suggests that he was deployed in Istria, i.e. in the Balkans, during the First World War. The former town of Pola is now called Pula and is located in Croatia.

Until 1932, Julius Cohn worked again as a painter's assistant and painter, most recently as a sign painter at Neufeld und Kuhnke GmbH. When the number of unemployed in the German Reich rose to over six million as a result of the global economic crisis, Julius Cohn also lost his job.

At the end of October 1932, the family moved to Hamburg, where Selma Cohn's siblings lived. The hope of perhaps having better job opportunities in the big city was only partially realized, so he had to apply for unemployment benefits at the beginning of November. The family's economic situation is documented in their welfare file. Selma Cohn was already over sixty years old and without a profession; she was unable to contribute anything to the household budget.

Erich, a trained commercial clerk, earned 89 Reichsmark (RM) gross, from July 1933 only 60 RM per month. We do not know which company he worked for. According to a report from the welfare office, he had been working as a sales representative for the "Julius Cohn company, Rödingsmarkt 69" since 1934 at the latest. The address shows that this was the company Julius A. Kohn (Kohn with a K). Julius Albert Kohn was a brother of Selma and therefore Erich's uncle. He traded in "Rauchwaren" (tanned animal skins).

Despite the difficulties for Jews on the labour market, Julius Cohn repeatedly managed to find a job for a while. For example, from 6 February 1934 to 12 June 1934 he worked for the master painter Levy at Kippingstraße 25 and from 12 May to 24 July 1936 at the Robinsohn department store on Neuer Wall. In between, he received a meagre unemployment benefit, for example 12.30 RM per week in 1936. The rent for the apartment alone was 56.60 RM a month.

Erich was able to flee to Brazil in February 1939. He became a member of the CIP (Congregação Israelita Paulista), the Jewish congregation founded by German refugees in Sao Paulo. He kept in touch with his parents by letter. In their last letter, dated 14 November 1941, they thanked him for the parcels he sent them. He probably also tried to get a visa for Ecuador for them, as can be seen from his father's reply: "Now my child, don't worry about Ecuador because [that] is too expensive and besides, we have to wait and see what happens and if we [God willing] remain healthy, we will have the good fortune to see you again, my beloved child."

Erich Cohn was very close to the family of his cousin Gerda Silberberg (née Kohn), the daughter of Selma's sister Emma, who also lived in Sao Paulo. Gerda's son Claudio Silberberg remembers him as a "fine person, rather reserved, matter-of-fact." Erich remained single and worked as a sales representative for a plastics manufacturing company. He died on 1 November 1992 in Sao Paulo.

His parents, presumably happy to know that Erich was safe, had depended on his salary to supplement their budget. Since his departure this money was missing. In February 1939, the welfare office's examination report states: "C. [= Cohn] is doing U. work ("Unterstützungsarbeit", so-called support work, heavy physical labour, here earthworks in Tiefstack) [...] C. has lost his last job due to the closure of the company (the foreman is Jewish) [...] The couple has no help from third parties, nor does the Jewish congregation step in. [...] The rent has been paid up to and including February this year. One room is now to be rented out. The payment could still be made because C. had good earnings and some savings. The savings have now been used up. The furniture of one room has already been sold."

A little later, from 23 March, the financial "support" of RM 4.40 a week was stopped "because of work". The last entry in the welfare file reads: "C. works as a painter's assistant with a weekly net income of RM 36 per week". 
It is doubtful whether Julius Cohn was able to keep this job any longer, as Jewish businesses had to be closed down and the only remaining employer - if any - was the former Jewish congregation. The latter also had to take on paying the welfare benefits for Jewish welfare recipients.

At the beginning of December 1941, Selma and Julius Cohn received the deportation order in their apartment at Roonstraße 18, 1st floor. They were deported to Riga-Jungfernhof on 6 December 1941 and did not return.

Stand: March 2025
© Sabine Brunotte

Quellen: 1; 5; 6; StaH 332-5_5968; StaH 351-14_1049; https://www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de Biografie Hermann Kohn, Zugriff 6.7.2024;
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kreis_Darkehmen Zugriff 6.7.2024; diverse Hamburger Adressbücher unter https://agora.sub.uni-hamburg.de/subhh-adress/digbib/asearch, letzter Zugriff 14.8.2024; http://www.statistik-des-holocaust.de/OT411206-4.jpg, Zugriff 15.8.2024; schriftliche Auskunft Claudio Silberberg, E-Mails vom 27.6.2024, 13.8.2024, 15.8.2024 und 17.8.2024; Michael Brocke, Margret Heitmann, Harald Lordick, Zur Geschichte und Kultur der Juden in Ost- und Westpreußen, Hildesheim, Zürich, New York, S. 341; schriftliche Auskunft Stadtarchiv Kiel, E-Mail vom 29.5.2024.
Zur Nummerierung häufig genutzter Quellen siehe Link "Recherche und Quellen".