Gertrud Cohn (née Ohnstein; January 21, 1876 – September 29, 1942) was a German victim of the

Nazi regime Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictat ...

. The fate of her family was published as a

children's book Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. In addition to conventional literary genres, modern children's literature is classified by the intended age of the reade ...

. The book became the basis for an exhibition, a play and a film. The book is used in German primary schools for children between ten and twelve.

Personal life

Gertrud Cohn was the daughter of the businessman Isidor Ohnstein and his wife Natalie. She attended the Viktoria school in Berlin-Schöneberg. On July 1, 1900, Gertrud Ohnstein married the businessman Hugo Cohn. The couple had two sons: Ludwig, born on April 27, 1901, and Werner, who has been younger. Hugo Cohn died in 1928. His widow lived in good circumstances at ''Nikolsburger Platz 4'',

Berlin-Wilmersdorf Wilmersdorf () is an inner-city locality of Berlin which lies south-west of the central city. Formerly a borough by itself, Wilmersdorf became part of the new borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf following Berlin's 2001 administrative reform. H ...

.Stolpersteine Nikolsburger Platz 4. HIER WOHNTE GERTRUD COHN
Retrieved 17 January 2021 Because of her Jewish origins, Gertrud Cohn was expelled from her apartment by the Nazis in 1940 and had to move into a “Judenhaus” (or Ghettohaus, ''

ghetto A ghetto is a part of a city in which members of a minority group are concentrated, especially as a result of political, social, legal, religious, environmental or economic pressure. Ghettos are often known for being more impoverished than other ...

house''). On August 30, 1942, she was transported to the former Jewish retirement home at '' Grosse Hamburger Strasse 26'' and

deported Deportation is the expulsion of a person or group of people by a state from its Sovereignty, sovereign territory. The actual definition changes depending on the place and context, and it also changes over time. A person who has been deported or ...

via

Anhalter Bahnhof The Anhalter Bahnhof is a former train station, railway terminus in Berlin, Germany, approximately southeast of Potsdamer Platz. Once one of Berlin's most important railway stations, it was severely damaged in World War II, and finally closed fo ...

to the ghetto of Theresienstadt, on September 2. She had to finance her accommodation in the ghetto with a “home purchase contract”. On September 29, 1942, Gertrud Cohn was transported to the

extermination camp Nazi Germany used six extermination camps (), also called death camps (), or killing centers (), in Central Europe, primarily in occupied Poland, during World War II to systematically murder over 2.7 million peoplemostly Jewsin the Holocau ...

Treblinka Treblinka () was the second-deadliest extermination camp to be built and operated by Nazi Germany in Occupation of Poland (1939–1945), occupied Poland during World War II. It was in a forest north-east of Warsaw, south of the Treblinka, ...

and murdered there. Her granddaughter Susi Collm, born in 1936, survived the

Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

separated from her parents in various hiding places. Ludwig Cohn had changed his name to ''Collm''. After the end of the war he was able to work as a grammar school teacher again and moved with his family into an apartment owned by the Cecilien school at ''Nikolsburger Platz 5''. Susi Collm later emigrated to the United States.

Reception

Today, there is a playground at ''Nikolsburger Platz 4''. On April 29, 2012, the artist

Gunter Demnig Gunter Demnig (born 27 October 1947) is a German artist. He is best known for his ''Stolperstein'' ("stumbling block") memorials to the victims of Nazi persecution, including Jews, homosexuals, Romani people, Romani and the disabled. The project ...

laid eleven “

Stolperstein A (; plural ) is a concrete cube bearing a brass plate inscribed with the name and life dates of victims of Nazi extermination or persecution. Literal translation, Literally, it means 'stumbling stone' and metaphorically 'stumbling block'. ...

e” (stumbling blocks) there, donated by pupils, parents and teachers from the Cecilien school. With a scenic performance, the students commemorated the murder of the former residents and the expulsion of Jewish pupils from their school. Birgitta Behr, a primary school teacher and artist, wrote and illustrated the children's book ''Susi. Die Enkelin von Haus Nummer 4 und die Zeit der versteckten Judensterne'' (Susi. The granddaughter of house no. 4 and the time of the hidden

yellow badge The yellow badge, also known as the yellow patch, the Jewish badge, or the yellow star (, ), was an accessory that Jews were required to wear in certain non-Jewish societies throughout history. A Jew's ethno-religious identity, which would be d ...

s). The

graphic novel A graphic novel is a self-contained, book-length form of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and Anthology, anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comics sc ...

was published in 2016. The presentation in the school combined a radio play, stage and film performance. The following year, “Susi” was exhibited as a contribution by the school to the youth forum ''Jugendforum denk!mal '17'' with 49 other projects in the

Abgeordnetenhaus of Berlin The of Berlin (House of Representatives) () is the state parliament ('' Landtag'') of Berlin, Germany according to the city-state's constitution. In 1993, the parliament moved from Rathaus Schöneberg to its present house on Niederkirchnerst ...

. From January 19 to June 16, 2019, the Museum Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf showed the larger exhibition ''Susi. Die Enkelin von Haus Nummer 4'', in Villa Oppenheim. Initiated and designed by Birgitta Behr it was curated like a “walk-in comic”. The program included a wide range of educational opportunities for school classes as well as teacher's handouts, worksheets and other materials. The exhibition “comiXconnection” in the

Museum Europäischer Kulturen The Museum of European Cultures (, MEK) – National Museums in Berlin – Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation came from the unification of the Europe-Department in the Berlin Museum of Ethnography and the Berlin Museum for Folklore in 1999. T ...

(Berlin, 2019) had the book and illustrations on display as an example of the mediating function of graphic novels. The book is used in primary schools for children between ten and twelve. As “a powerful example of courage and solidarity” in dark times the book is telling the family's story and reflecting the feelings of a girl in the age of seven. It also provides fact pages about Nazi Germany and a timeline.“Susi”- a graphic novel about a Jewish girl in disguise – and how to work with the book in primary schools, by Silvia Stieneker (GEW, Germany).
Published 28 January 2020, retrieved 17 January 2021

The book

Birgitta Behr, Sandra Wendeborn: ''Susi. Die Enkelin von Haus Nummer 4 und die Zeit der versteckten Judensterne.'' ArsEdition, Munich 2016. 109 pages. .

References

External links

Book, exhibition, handouts
(German) {{DEFAULTSORT:Cohn, Gertrud People from Berlin German people who died in Treblinka extermination camp Theresienstadt Ghetto prisoners People from Berlin executed in Nazi concentration camps 1876 births 1942 deaths Lists of stolpersteine in Germany