Memorial Sign for Erwin Elias Kahn,
Gärtnerplatz 3

16.04.2023 03:30 p.m.

Veranstaltung

A memorial event was held for Erwin Elias Kahn on 16 April 2023.

Firstly, Gerd Modert recalled the beginnings of Nazi terror in Munich on a tour of the city. At a memorial service in the St. Vincent House, the initiator of the Memorial Sign for Erwin Kahn, Church Councillor Dr Björn Mensing from the Evangelical Church of Reconciliation at the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial, spoke, after several words of welcome from Prof. Dr Markus M. Lerch, Chairman of the LMU Hospital, City Councillor Beppo Brem, representing the Lord Mayor of the City of Munich, Dr h.c. Charlotte Knobloch, President of the Jewish Community of Munich and Upper Bavaria, and Ernst Grube, Holocaust survivor and President of the Dachau Camp Community. Julia Cortis read letters by Erwin Kahn wrote at Dachau concentration camp, and Sophie Aeckerle sang the Dauchaulied by Jura Soyfer and Herbert Zipper as well as Psalm 22 and Job by Rachel Knobler.

Following speeches by Ludwig Mittermeier, Chairman of the Catholic Men's Welfare Association Munich, and Dr Barbara Turczynski-Hartje from the Ludwigsvorstadt-Isarvorstadt district committee, the Memorial Sign for Erwin Kahn was placed at his former place of residence in Hans-Sachs-Straße.

Sunday, 16 April 2023
3.30 pm
City tour

4.30 pm
Memorial event for Erwin Kahn
St Vincent House

Greeting by Prof. Dr Markus M. Lerch, Director of the LMU Clinic
Greeting by City Councillor Beppo Brem, representing the Lord Mayor of the City of Munich
Greeting by Dr h.c. Charlotte Knobloch, President of the Jewish Community of Munich and Upper Bavaria
Greeting by Ernst Grube, Holocaust survivor and President of the Dachau Camp Community
Initiator of the memorial sign: Church Councillor Dr Björn Mensing, Evangelical Church of Reconciliation at the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site
Julia Cortis reads letters by Erwin Kahn from Dachau concentration camp
Sophie Aeckerle (singing), Dauchaulied by Jura Soyfer and Herbert Zipper, Psalm 22 and Job by Rachel Knobler

Flyer (PDF)

Commemorative event for Erwin Kahn

Prof. Dr. med. Markus M. Lerch, Director of the LMU Klinikum

Councillor Beppo Brem, representing the Lord Mayor of the City of Munich

Prof. Dr. med. Markus M. Lerch, director of LMU Klinikum

Dr h.c. Charlotte Knobloch, President of the Jewish Community of Munich and Upper Bavaria

Ernst Grube, Holocaust survivor and President of the Dachau Camp Community

Sophie Aeckerle, Karlsruhe University of Music

Björn Mensing, pastor and historian, Versöhnungskirche at the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site

Julia Cortis from Bayerischer Rundfunk reads letters from Erwin Elias Kahn and passages from the testimony of his widow

Guests at the memorial service for Erwin Kahn

Memorial Sign for Erwin Elias Kahn

5.30 pm
Installation of the Memorial Sign for Erwin Kahn
Hans-Sachs-Straße 18

rwin Elias Kahn married Euphrosina Vessar in Bucharest in 1928. From 1932, the young couple lived at Hans-Sachs-Straße 18. On 11 March 1933, Erwin Elias Kahn was arrested on the street and deported to Dachau concentration camp on the opening day of the camp.

On 12 April 1933, the SS carried out a massacre of communist prisoners with Jewish roots as a deterrent. Unlike Rudolf Benario, Ernst Goldmann and Arthur Kahn, who were killed, Erwin Kahn survived seriously injured with two shots to the head because the police lieutenant Emil Schuler, who was present, prevented the SS from killing the seriously injured man with further shots. Erwin Elias Kahn was operated on in the surgical clinic in Nußbaumstraße, where he was able to describe the events to his wife on 15 April.

The following night, Erwin Kahn was killed, as the autopsy revealed, by violence to the larynx. He is believed to have been strangled by guards at the hospital.