Max & Helen Forchheimer Family

Submitted by Jeff Kraus, grandson of Max & Helen Forchheimer, son of Ruth Kraus (nee Forchheimer)

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​My grandparents, Max and Helen, and their children Ruth (my mother) and Robert "Bob" (my uncle) lived with their Forchheimer cousins Bertha and Emil and their children at 28 Bahnhofstrasse (aka Adolph Hitler Straße).  It was a prosperous family.  Max was part of the family's furniture manufacturing business, N. Forchheimer & Co., which sold its products throughout Europe. Helen was a homemaker.  

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My grandfather Max was a WWI veteran, fighting for the Fatherland and awarded an Iron Cross.  That did not save him from the Nazi’s anti-Jewish policies, which forced him to “sell” his business, for pennies on the dollar. And much of the meager proceeds from the sale evaporated because the Nazi government imposed taxes on all Jews who sold their businesses to Aryans.

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As for Ruth and Bob, they were two of only a handful of Jews in public school. After Hitler took power in 1933, when Ruth was 9 and Bob was 7, they were regularly harassed, verbally and physically, both in school and traveling to/from school. When Germany decreed that Jews could not attend public school, they went to a Jewish boarding school that luckily was located in Coburg. When the headmaster escaped Germany for Palestine and the school closed, they were sent to Berlin to attend the American School, a school largely for the children of American diplomats. That’s where they were on Kristallnacht.

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Kristallnacht made it clear to my grandparents that they had no future in Germany. So, now they had to navigate the labyrinthian bureaucracy to make their escape. Their children came first, and within a month of Kristallnacht, my grandmother managed to get the proper papers together to send her children to the Netherlands. During this time, my grandfather was not around.  He was on a business trip out of Germany on Kristallnacht, and he never returned. So, all of the stress and drama of getting permission for her children to leave Germany fell on my grandmother alone.

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When she had arranged everything, my grandmother took Ruth and Bob to another town to put them on a train, as she was worried they’d be spotted if they left from Coburg. She hired a worker from my grandfather’s factory to escort her children out of the country, but he got off the train at the first stop. 

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So Ruth and Bob were alone, ages 15 and 13. They had to change trains in Cologne, and didn’t know what to do. Which train, which track, when?  They had 11 pieces of luggage with them, and mom stayed with the luggage while Bob walked around the huge train station trying to get help.  No one offered, until Bob encountered a woman who was leading a Kindertransport to England. She invited Ruth and Bob to travel with her group, which they gratefully did. Without this woman, they likely would not have made it out of Germany. Not only did she get them on the right train, but their papers weren’t closely checked at the border because now they were part of a large group of kids.

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Once safely in the Netherlands, Ruth and Bob slept at the train station the evening they arrived, both vowing never to set foot in Germany again. The next day, they were placed in a refugee camp in Heijplaat, just outside Rotterdam.  They had each other, but otherwise were alone. Would they see their mother again, their father?

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Months later, their mother Helen entered the refugee camp. Apparently, her visa to enter the Netherlands had been extended several times while she tried to get the right German exit documents, and she made it to the Netherlands on the last day her very last extension expired. When Ruth and Bob saw their mother they didn’t recognize her, she had aged so in the short time since they were last together.

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Eventually, Helen, Ruth, and Bob were transferred to Amsterdam, where they lived in the Lloyds Hotel; then a refugee center, now a hotel. All this time, my grandfather was in Amsterdam, living with family. He was able to see his family on occasion, but otherwise they were separated. 

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The family wanted to emigrate to the US, where Max's brother lived. At this time, the US had a quota system for immigrants, so it was very difficult for German Jews to get permission to enter the US. But my grandmother Helen had been born in South Africa, so the US authorities considered her and her children under the British quota, which was little used. That allowed them to get immigration cards allowing them to enter the US. My grandfather was not so lucky, as he was under the German quota. So, while his family had permission to enter the US, he did not.

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Making the difficult decision to separate, Helen, Ruth, and Bob boarded a German boat headed for New York.  Mid-Atlantic, the captain received an order to turn the boat around and return to Hamburg, Germany.  That panicked all the refugees on board, as you can imagine. That order was rescinded, and a new order told the captain to dock in Spain. Better, but not great.  More panic. The captain either ignored this second order or it too was rescinded, because the boat landed in New York on Aug. 28, 1939, three days before WWII started. Now Helen, Ruth, and Bob were safely in America, but my grandfather Max was still in Amsterdam.  He eventually made it to America in 1940, before Germany invaded the Netherlands.  I am not familiar with the circumstances of his escape.

  

My mother Ruth was a teenager when she arrived in America. When she was 19 or 20 she met my dad, Herbert Kraus, also a Jewish refugee from Germany.  They got engaged in March 1943 and married after my dad returned from the war in March 1946. My sister, Renee Barnow, was born in 1948.  My brother Ron was born in 1950, and I was born in 1956. I married Cherie Balan in 1987, and we have two kids, Josh, born in 1989, and Jamie, born in 1992. Jamie is married to Morgan Every. Josh is living with his girlfriend, Ariel Bonilla. No grandkids, not even a grand dog!

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Submitted by Renee Barnow (nee Kraus), granddaughter of Max & Helen, daughter of Ruth Forchheimer

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​​These tidbits from my mother's (Ruth Forchheimer) childhood in Coburg, Germany come from my memory of her telling me and from her recording them on paper. A favorite activity was collecting chestnuts from trees that lined both sides of Bahnhofstrasse that fell down. She and her brother Robert and other kids would collect the chestnuts and deliver them up the big hill to the Vestung where the Duke lived. They sold the chestnuts for a few marks and were so proud of making a little money. Mom reported that the Duke of Coburg was reputed to be in love with her mother (our grandmother).

 

The Max Forchheimer family lived next door to the Emil Forchheimer Family (parents of Frank, Anne, Peter), which created opportunities for lots of play time in the backyard. Mom said she took many athletic risks while playing in that yard, referring to herself as close to a wild child.

 

She tells about having fun in a real doll house that people in her father’s factory made, that she was actually able to fit into, though without standing up.

 

Mom was always cost conscious and that trait traced to her childhood when a seamstress was making my mom a special occasion dress. Mom asked the seamstress which was the cheapest fabric and to use that one.

 

Mom stayed in Coburg for much of her schooling, first the Rueckertschule and then the Lyceum, a girls only high school. In 1936, after it was no longer possible for Jews to attend any public school, all the Jews signed up at “Internat” Hermann Hirsch, a school that mostly out of town boys attended. The school was sports oriented, where Mom engaged in wrestling with boys her age or older. She excelled in all sorts of gymnastics including high jump, long jump, racing, parallel bars and the pummel horse, not so much discus throwing. She was selected to represent her school at a nationwide competition in Berlin. She was a skilled skier and swimmer.

 

After the principal of the Internat emigrated to Israel to escape, there was no place in Coburg for Mom and her brother to continue their education Jews were no longer permitted. My grandmother made arrangements for them to attend a private school in Berlin, the American School of Berlin, for children of American Consulate and other foreign embassy personnel. They were attending that school on Kristallnacht, November 9, 1938. After that, staying in Berlin was no longer safe. Her mother had made arrangements for her and Robert to go to Holland, so it was back to Coburg for the last time and then to Holland in December 1938.​

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Submitted by Melanie Kutnick (nee Forchheimer), granddaughter of Max & Helen Forchheimer, daughter of Robert Forchheimer

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My father’s family lived in Coburg: my father, Robert Forchheimer, aunt, Ruth Kraus and grandparents, Max & Helen Forchheimer. They shared a house with Max’s 1st cousin, Emil Forchheimer and wife, Bertha, and their children Peter, Frank & Anne. My grandfather owned a furniture factory with a partner or two.

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My father Robert and his sister Ruth left Coburg on a train by themselves and ended up in a refugee camp in Holland. My grandmother later arrived at the same camp by coincidence. After some time they were able to come to the United States on the South African quota, since my grandmother was born in South Africa while her parents were temporarily living there for work. They arrived in New York City in August, 1939 and when my grandfather arrived, they settled in Cleveland, Ohio. ​After high school my father enlisted in the Army and served in World War II. Upon return to the US, in 1952, he married Betty and became a well-respected CPA. They had 3 children: Melanie, Jody & Martin, 5 grandchildren & 6 great-grandchildren (currently).

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