Berta Konn, geb. Franc

Berta Franc was born on October 30, 1863 in Tauberbischofsheim. Her parents were the merchant Leopold Franc and his wife Sara, née Rosenthal. In 1900 Berta Franc married Dr. Adolf Abraham Kohn, a retired Austrian surgeon major. On April 1, 1901 the couple moved to Munich and changed their family name to Konn. Their son, Ludwig Ignaz, was born two years later. On April 28, 1921 Berta Konn’s husband Adolf died at the age of 78. Very little is known about Berta Konn’s life during the Nazi period. As of 1937 she was living at Galeriestraße 21 (today Franz-Josef-Strauß-Ring 4). On January 15, 1938 she moved to Maximilianstraße 20b – her last known address in Munich. Five months later, Berta Konn deregistered from her Munich address and moved to Vienna, where her son had lived since 1933. The last address for Berta and Ludwig Konn was Schiffamtsgasse 10. It was the location of a so-called collective apartment, where Jews were forcibly settled. Such apartments were often found in buildings owed by Jews. On August 27, 1942 the Gestapo (Secret Police) deported Berta and Ludwig Konn in Transport 38 from Vienna to Theresienstadt ghetto. Of the 1,000 people deported that day, 881 were over the age of 61; the average age was 72. In Theresienstadt, Berta Konn – who was 78 years old – was assigned the prisoner number 15785. She died on April 24, 1943. The official cause given by the concentration camp doctor was “old age,” but the actual cause of Berta Konn's death was undoubtedly the extremely poor living conditions and the deliberate lack of care. Berta Konn’s son, Ludwig, did not survive the Shoah either: The SS murdered him on May 16, 1944 in Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Berta Konn’s brother, Jacob Franc, died in 1942, also in Theresienstadt. (text Stefan Dickas, editor C. Fritsche, translation T. Axelrod)