Leo & Sophie Klein Family
Submitted by Ben and Ari Kayser, great-grandsons of Leo and Sophie Klein
Our great-grandfather, Leonhard (Leo) Klein, lived in Coburg, Germany, during the early 20th century. He was born on 5 April 1886 in Bamberg, the youngest child of Benno Klein and Charlotte Klein (née Ballin). On 29 June 1921, Leo married Sophie Mannheimer of Coburg, the daughter of Wilhelm Mannheimer, a well-known local horse dealer, and Nathalie (née Kaufmann).
Together, Leo and Sophie had three children, all born in Coburg:
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Gerhard Klein (b. 10 June 1923)
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Ursula Klein (b. 13 May 1925)
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Rosemarie Klein (b. 5 March 1929)
The family lived at Kanonenweg 33, a house next to Kanonenweg 35, the site of Leo’s brother Julius Klein’s factory.
Before his marriage, Leo worked in the Brussels branch of MoKo, a toy business founded by his uncle, Moritz Kohnstam. The company specialized in packaging, warehousing, distributing, and marketing toys under the MoKo brand.
Leo Klein served in the Bavarian Army during World War I, enlisting in 1914 at the age of 28. His service spanned much of the war, during which he was stationed in various locations as part of Germany’s military efforts. Records indicate that Leo’s assignments reflected his dedication and discipline, with entries documenting his activities through 1918, when the war concluded.
The family appears to have lived a comfortable and integrated life in Coburg. Sophie’s father, Wilhelm Mannheimer, was a prominent figure in local business, and the Klein-Mannheimer household was situated in a relatively affluent area. The photographs from this period show a happy and active family life.
On 21 March 1933, just weeks after Hitler came to power, Leo was arrested in Coburg during one of the earliest coordinated attacks on Jewish citizens. Under the pretence of "protective custody," he was taken to the Coburg Town Hall, where he and other Jewish men were made to walk through a corridor of SS men wielding rubber truncheons.
He was then taken to a nearby inn, known by survivors as the "whipping room", where he was brutally beaten. Witnesses later described the site as covered in blood and filth. Leo was only released after suffering such severe injuries that he could walk only with the aid of two sticks. This horrific event is documented in the Coburg city archive, and Stolpersteine now mark the lives of both Leo and Sophie Klein on Kanonenweg.
Recognizing the growing danger, the family decided to leave Germany. In 1936, when Leo was 50 years old. His 13-year-old son Gerhard and 11-year-old daughter Ursula fled to British Mandate Palestine. A year later, in 1937, Leo, Sophie, and their 8-year-old daughter Rosemarie followed them to Tel Aviv.
Leo and Sophie spent the remainder of their lives in Tel Aviv, where Leo compiled a remarkable family tree in 1951, called Genealogie der Familie Klein 1769-1951, tracing his ancestry as far as he could.
Leo’s son, Gerhard Klein, became Gad Ben-Ari in Israel, and he served in the British navy before working as a radio officer on the ship Kedma, and later as the Chief Radio Officer of the ship SS Negbah for the ZIM shipping company. Gad married Zilla (nee Shmulevitch) and they have two daughters, Avigail and Kareen, who live in Israel. Today their descendants live mostly in Israel, with some in London.
Leo's daughter Ursula Klein found it very difficult to acclimate to her new life outside of Germany and had a strong desire to study abroad, although many of her applications were denied, due to her being Jewish. She eventually managed to achieve that dream, earning a medical degree from Heidelberg University in Germany, and later completing her qualifications in Kansas City and Virginia in the United States. By 1959, she was working as a radiologist in Oklahoma City and tragically died later that year, at the age of just 34.
Leo's daughter Rosemarie Klein, later known as Ruti, went on to live a full life in Israel having three children and many grandchildren who live in Israel today.
Leo Klein documented as much as he could about his family members with the information available to him up until 1951 when he completed his findings. We have since been able to verify the tragic fates of numerous family members who were murdered in the Holocaust.
Leo’s brother, Julius Klein, whose factory was on Kanonenweg 35, next door to Leo’s Coburg home, together with his wife Clara (nee Oettinger), were deported on 29 November 1941 to Jungfernhof Concentration Camp in Riga, Latvia. They were among the first 25 Jewish people from Coburg who were deported to Riga and their names are listed in a memorial at the site in Riga. They are also mentioned in the Yad Vashem Archive.
Leo was unaware of the fate of his sister, Sophie Grünebaum (nee Klein). We since discovered she was deported from Nürnberg on 10 September 1942 to Theresienstadt Ghetto. She remained there for 20 months until she was deported on 18 May 1944 to Auschwitz-Birkenau where she was murdered. Sophie is mentioned in the Yad Vashem Archive.
Anni Emmy Seelig, daughter of Sophie Grünebaum and niece of Leo Klein, escaped from Nordhausen, Germany via numerous countries to Shanghai, China. She died in the Shanghai Ghetto on 7 July 1942. Her name appears on a ‘List of Persecuted Persons’ who were Jewish refugees from Central Europe who died in Shanghai. Yad Vashem lists her as perishing ‘indirectly’ in the Shoah.
Marion Elly Susanne Kahn, granddaughter of Hedwig Frank (nee Klein) who was the sister of Leo Klein, was deported from Weimar, Germany on 10 May 1942 at the age of 14, to Belzyce Ghetto in Poland where she was murdered. She is mentioned in the Yad Vashem Archive.
Bertha Kaufmann (nee Klein), first cousin of Leo Klein, was deported from Berlin, Germany on 10 July 1942 to Theresienstadt Ghetto. She was then deported two months later, on 19 September 1942, to Treblinka Extermination Camp in Poland where she was murdered. Bertha is mentioned in the Yad Vashem Archive.
Paula Levi (nee Klein), first cousin of Leo Klein and sister of Bertha Kaufmann, was deported from Nürnberg, Germany, on 10 September 1942, to Theresienstadt Ghetto. She was then deported a few weeks later, on 29 September 1942, to Treblinka Extermination Camp in Poland where she was murdered. Paula is mentioned in the Yad Vashem Archive.
Helene Theilheimer, daughter of Babette Kohnstam (nee Klein), and first cousin of Leo Klein, was deported from Hamburg, Germany, on 25 October 1941, to the Litzmannstadt (Łodz) Ghetto in Poland where she died on 7 July 1942. She was on the same deportation as her grandson Hellmuth Rosenberg, who also died there. Helene and Hellmuth are both mentioned in the Yad Vashem Archive.
Sofie Büchenbacher, daughter of Babette Kohnstam (nee Klein), and first cousin of Leo Klein, was deported from Köln, Germany, on 22 October 1941, to the Litzmannstadt (Łodz) Ghetto in Poland. She was later taken to Chelmno Extermination Camp in Poland where she was murdered in May 1942. Sofie’s daughter Dorothea Gutmann and her granddaughter Ruth Eva Gutmann were deported from München, Germany on 20 November 1941, to the Fort IX Extermination Camp in Lithuania, where they were shot dead on 25 November 1941 shortly after getting off the train in a massacre of 2,934 people, including 175 children. Sofie, Dorothea, and Ruth Eva are mentioned in the Yad Vashem Archive.
