Coat design, Culm, created by a German Jewish man and saved by his wife in hiding

Julius Isaacsohn was born on November 19, 1891, in Berlin, Germany, to Herrman Benjamin and Ernestine Kaiser Isaacsohn. He had several brothers. Julius was a garment maker and coat and suit designer who imported his own fabrics. In May 1931, Julius married Gertrud Koh, a master seamstress. She was born on June 3, 1901, in Gratz, Germany (Grodzisk Wielkopolski, Poland), to Alex and Dorothea Koh. She had 2 brothers, and a sister, Anna, and the family moved to Berlin after World War I. Gertrud ran a dressmaking business in their apartment and employed a non-Jewish woman, Lucie Gardner. On July 15, 1933, Julius and Gertrud’s daughter, Dorothea (Dorit,) was born. They made a good living, lived in a predominantly Jewish area, and attended a large synagogue.

The Nazi regime took power in 1933, and began actively persecuting Jews. Gertrud’s employee Lucie was not allowed to work for a Jewish woman. In 1938, Julius and Gertrud lost their jobs. In February 1939, they had to turn over their valuables. Julius and Gertrud attempted to leave Germany, but could not get visas. They sent 6 year old Dorit to Brussels, Belgium, to live with Gertrud’s sister, Anna Kaufman. She, her husband, and stepson had fled to Brussels earlier because Anna’s stepson was gay and was persecuted by the Nazis. Dorit had diphtheria when she arrived and was hospitalized before going to live with her aunt Anna. Julius and Gertrud were forced to house displaced Jewish families in their apartment. The war began when Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. Shortly after, on May 10, 1940, Germany invaded Belgium. A year later, Julius and Gertrud had Dorit returned to Berlin with the help of a family friend. Julius and Gertrud became forced laborers for the German government: Julius at a lumber yard, and Gertrud at a Kurt Seidel factory sewing leather goods for the army. They began making arrangements to go into hiding.

On February 27, 1943, Gertrud heard that there was going to be a large roundup of Jews so the family went into hiding with non-Jewish friends. Julius and Gertrud found an apartment to rent under the false name Schultz, but they had no papers to support that claim. When they arrived, the owner refused to let them stay and they separated. They sent Dorit to stay with her mother’s former employee, Lucie Gardner, who told neighbors that Dorit was her niece. Julius went to stay in the basement apartment of a janitor, where he slept in a rocking chair. Gertrud put an ad in the paper advertising herself as a private, traveling dressmaker who had been bombed out of her apartment and was looking for work in people’s homes. She told people that her husband was in the army and her daughter was with family. In April or May, Dorit moved into a crowded apartment with Julius’ nephew Rolf Isaacsohn, and his girlfriend, Stella Goldschlag Kubler. In July, Rolf and Dorit learned that Stella had been arrested by the Gestapo. Shortly after, Dorit went to live with Julius in the janitor’s apartment.

In October 1943, Gertrud was living at a farm in Wilkersdorf (Krzesnica, Poland) and asked the farmer to allow Dorit to live there. The farmer agreed if Dorit brought stamps for sugar. Julius purchased the stamps on the black market and Dorit moved to the farm. In November, Rolf asked Julius to meet him. Several friends warned Julius that Rolf and Stella were turning Jews over to the Gestapo, but Julius believed his nephew would never hurt him. Julius went to meet Rolf and was arrested by the Gestapo. On October 29, 1943, Julius was placed on Transport 45 and deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau killing center in German-occupied Poland, where he was killed. From November 1943 to December 1944, Gertrud and Dorit traveled around Germany working as a private dressmaker for wealthy clients. They both survived the war, and in 1949, they immigrated to the United States. Gertrud, 77, died in July 1978, in Philadelphia. Dorit, 75, died on December 5, 2008, in Philadelphia.