Kahn family papers

Ruth Kahn (1923-2015, later Ruth Marx) was born on 8 July 1923 to cattle dealer Leo Louis (1884-1942) and Elfriede (1889-1942) Kahn in Sulzburg, Germany. She had two sisters, Marga (b. 1927, later Marga Birnbaum) and Paula (b. 1924, later Paula Finkelstein), and one brother, Sally or Solly Josef (b. 1929, later Bezalel). The Kahns were Orthodox Jews and Leo was a veteran of World War I.

As anti-Semitism increased in Sulzburg, the Kahns began to search for ways to emigrate. In 1936, Paula left Sulzburg to stay with Leo’s sister in New York. In 1937, Leo lost his commercial license and was forced to sell his house. In early 1938 they applied for visas to Switzerland, but were not successful in obtaining them. During Kristallnacht, the family apartment was ransacked, and Leo was arrested and briefly sent to Dachau concentration camp. Ruth went to Flehingen and babysat for a cantor and his wife for a short while. In January 1939, Ruth, Sally, and their cousin Hermina were put on a Kindertransport to Switzerland. Ruth and Sally were separated. She went to a children’s home in Heiden, Switzerland and he went to Basel where he lived with a Jewish family.

In 1940. Leo, Elfriede, and Marga were deported to internment camps in southern France at Rivesaltes, Gurs and Les Milles. In 1942, Marga was hidden in several locations including Chateau du Couret, Haute-Vienne Chateau de Couret, and Chateau du Couret Maison. She arrived in Switzerland in May 1943. In August, 1942, Leo and Elfriede were sent to the Drancy internment camp in Paris and then deported to Auschwitz concentration camp where they were killed.

Ruth and Marga immigrated to the United States from Switzerland in 1946 aboard the SS Minot Victory. Sally immigrated to the United States around the same time. Marga married Menashe Birnbaum (b. 1923) in 1951. Ruth would later marry Gunther Marx (1927-1974), son of Hugo (b. 1888) and Klara (b. 1893) Marx, who also fled Germany in the 1940s.