Kosterich family. Collection

Max Kosterich was born on 12 December 1884 in Frankfurt am Main. He married to Hedwig Goldschmidt, born 21 September 1887 in Cologne. They lived in Brussels, Belgium, and had four children together: Hans, Oskar, Walter Joseph and Manfred. When the Germans invaded Belgium, Max and his sons Hans, Oskar and Walter Joseph were taken to the south of France. Given they were German refugees, some feared they were part of the notorious fifth column, infiltrators that were send ahead of the actual invasion to aid the German advance. To be certain, a lot of pro-Nazi’s but also many refugees (often fleeing from Nazi persecution) were held captive and taken to the south of France when the Germans broke through with their Blitzkrieg. The detention camps they were held in, were previously used to house refuges from the prior Spanish Civil War. The pro-Nazi’s were released after the French capitulation but a lot of the often Jewish refugees were kept in the south of France. From the middle of 1942 many of the Jewish detainees were taken first to the Durchgangslager in Drancy near Paris, as was the case for the Kosterich family members. Consequently from Drancy they were deported. Hans and Oskar were the first to be deported, on Transport 20 which left Drancy on 17 August 1942. Max left on the 24th transport which left on 26 August 1942. The last to be deported was Walter Joseph, who was deported on the 29th transport from Drancy which left on 7 September 1942. All three of the transports had Auschwitz-Birkenau as their final destination. None of the four survived their deportation. Only for Oskar it is known he died on 16 September 1942. The death date of Max, Hans and Walter Joseph is unknown. Manfred Kosterich, Max’s fourth son born 9 December 1916, was sent to live with an uncle in Australia in 1938 before the Second World War had started. Max’s wife Hedwig Kosterich and her sister Rosa Plaut were hidden in a convent during the war. In the late 1940’s they came to Australia too.

On 21 November 2022, Mr. Joe Kosterich permitted Kazerne Dossin to digitally archive four pictures, one passport and one envelope.

Joe Kosterich