Dr. phil. Elisabeth Kohn

Elisabeth Kohn was born at Elvirastrasse 3 in Munich on February 11, 1902. Her parents, Olga and Heinrich Kohn, ran a grain and feed wholesale business. From 1914, the family lived at Loristrasse 7. Like her sister, the artist Maria Luiko, who was two years her junior, Elisabeth attended the Luisengymnasium high school, passing her Abitur (school leaving and university entrance examination) there in 1921. She studied Law in Munich, also taking seminars in Philosophy, Psychology, Pedagogy, Philology and Art History as well as attending lectures at the Anatomical Institute. She gained her doctorate in 1924, which at that time was a great exception for a woman. After finishing her training, she gained her licence to practise as a lawyer in November 1928 and joined the law firm of Hirschberg, Löwenfeld and Regensteiner, which concentrated on political criminal trials.

Elisabeth Kohn’s life changed radically with the Nazi seizure of power. The Justice Ministry revoked her licence in August 1933. Her objection that she had to support her family was to no avail. Her request was rejected with the remark that she was “young and single” and could “find a place in any women’s profession”. Elisabeth Kohn found work in the welfare department of the Jewish religious community and gave courses for the local Zionist group on preparing for emigration to Palestine. In September 1939, Elisabeth Kohn, her sister Marie Luise and their widowed mother had to move into a flat in a “Jew house” at Frundsbergstrasse 8. They were subsequently moved to a “Jew house”, at Leopoldstrasse 42. Because they did not want to leave their mother on her own, Elisabeth Kohn and her sister had long hesitated with the decision to emigrate. By the early 1940s it was too late. On November 8, 1941, Elisabeth Kohn received her deportation order with the instruction “to be ready to travel with mother and sister from Tuesday onwards“. Barely a fortnight later, the Gestapo (secret state police) deported Elisabeth, Marie Luise and Olga Kohn to Kaunas along with around 1,000 other Munich Jews. On the morning of November 25, 1941, an SS special detail shot all the deportees. (Text: Ingrid Reuther; editor: C. Fritsche; translation: C. Hales)