40th Anniversary of the Victory over Nazi Germany bronze medal acquired by a Polish Jewish concentration camp survivor

Herbert Lichtenstein was born on July 8, 1920, in Oberwesel, Germany, to Wilhelm and Clementine Wolff Lichtenstein. Both of his parents were born in Oberwesel. His sister Meta was born on November 3, 1921. It was a small town with a large Jewish population. Herbert’s grandfather, Karl, born in 1858, was a butcher, and Herbert’s father, and later Herbert, also worked in the shop. In January 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany and anti-Jewish policies were enacted throughout the country. Herbert was Bar Mitzvahed that year with the entire family attending the ceremony. In September 1935, the Nuremberg Race laws were passed, excluding Jews from most aspects of German society. Herbert was no longer allowed to attend public school. On May 30, 1937, his father was in an automobile accident and died of his injuries. The family had financial difficulties, but the Jewish community of Oberwesel provided aid. The Nazi Party had promoted boycotts of Jewish owned businesses for several years, but Herbert and his grandfather were able to keep their butcher shop open until the Kristallnacht pogrom on November 9-10, 1938. Herbert made efforts to emigrate to Palestine and attended a camp which prepared youth for life in Palestine. In January 1939, Herbert was arrested and sent to a forced labor camp. In August 1941, he was transferred to Bielefeld forced labor camp. In January 1943, he was sent to Auschwitz concentration camp in German occupied Poland and marked with prisoner number 105483. In mid-January 1945, as the Soviet Army approached Auschwitz, the camp was evacuated and prisoners were transported to different camps. Herbert arrived in Buchenwald concentration camp on January 22 and was given prisoner number 117482. In April 1945, Herbert was transferred to Theresienstadt concentration camp. His grandfather Karl was also transferred there. While there, Herbert met and fell in love with another inmate, Ursula Cohn, who was born in 1924 and deported to Terezin in July 1942 from Berlin, Germany. The camp was liberated by the Soviet Army on May 9, 1945. Herbert was sick with typhus and hospitalized until July 1945. He lost touch with Ursula. His grandfather Karl also was liberated at Theresienstadt. Karl's birth date had been recorded incorrectly, giving him a younger age, and he was never deported to Auschwitz like nearly all the other elderly residents of Terezin. The rest of their family perished during the war. With the assistance of HIAS (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society) Herbert and Karl sailed on the Marine Marlin from Bremen on Janaury 24, 1947 to New York. Herbert reconnected withHerbert and Ursula, who had arrived in New York in in May 1946. The couple married in June 1950. Karl, age 94, died on May 11, 1952. Herbert, age 77, died in October 1997. Ursula, age 86, died in 2011.

Ursula Cohn was born on September 21, 1924, to Sally and Klara Heymann Cohn in Berlin, Germany. Sally was born in 1890 to Laura and Wolf Kohn. Klara was born in 1892. Ursula had two sisters: Ruth, born on May 1, 1922, and Lieselotte, born on November 16, 1926. They were an observant family, though not especially religious, and attended Oranienburgstrasse synagogue. Her father Sally was a salesman for a textile factory. Ruth was deeply involved with a Zionist youth organization and the members often gathered at their home. Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany in January 1933 and soon the persecution of Jews was government policy. The sisters attended public school until 1935, when the Nuremberg Laws were enacted and Jews were excluded from German society and public institutions, such as schools. They then attended a Jewish girl's school, where they were taught in German and Hebrew. The Jewish community had a curfew and they could shop for only one hour in the evening. Many of their neighbors stopped speaking to them. Ruth wanted to immigrate to Palestine but her mother did not want the family separated. During the Kristallnacht pogrom on November 9-10, 1938, the Jewish owned shops on their street were looted and their synagogue was vandalized. The family considered immigration, but a lack of money and the acquisition of visas were problems. They made preparations to go to Shanghai, but when Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, the borders were closed. Like most other Jews, they were assigned forced labor duties, and even Ursula’s younger sister Lieselotte had to work in an ammunition factory. In December 1941, Ruth married Ullrich Chotzen. In June 1942, SS General Reinhard Heydrich was assassinated in German occupied Czechoslovakia. Sally was arrested by the Gestapo, with dozens of other Jewish men. Soon after this, Klara, Ursula, and Lieselotte received a notice to pack a case of belongings and report to the train station. They were deported to Theresienstadt ghetto-labor camp in German occupied Czechoslovakia. When they reported for their first roll call, it was announced that 100 Jewish men, including Sally Cohn, had been shot in retaliation for an attempt on Hitler’s life. Lieselotte lived in the children’s quarters. Ursula and Klara were assigned to work in a mica factory splitting the mineral mica into flakes. Mica was used in the manufacture of electrical insulation for airplanes. It was hazardous work, but because it was important to the war effort, the women, and their dependents, were regarded as essential workers and not selected for deportation. In June 1943, Ursula’s sister Ruth arrived in the camp and stayed in the same barracks. Ruth’s husband Ullrich and his father were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau killing center on September 25, 1944. Ruth left on the next train on September 27. In April 1945, Ursula met and became friends with Herbert Lichtenstein. Herbert, born in 1920 in Germany, had been sent to forced labor camps, then Auschwitz, Buchenwald, and Theresienstadt. He was ill with typhus at liberation and the couple lost touch. The camp was liberated by the Soviet Army on May 9. Ursula found a truck to take her, Klara, and Lieselotte back to Berlin. In Berlin, they were reunited with Ruth. After her arrival in Auschwitz II-Birkenau, Ruth had been selected for forced labor and sent to Merzdorf concentration camp. She was liberated there on May 8, 1945, by Soviet forces. They stayed together in Ruth’s old apartment. Lieselotte wanted to go to Palestine, but the others did not. In January 1946, Ruth began working in Schlachtensee displaced persons camp. She met Frederick Weinstein, a survivor of the Warsaw ghetto, and they agreed to go separately to the United States where they would marry. On May 20, 1946. Ursula, Klara, and Ruth left Bremerhaven on the Marine Flasher, bound for New York. Lieselotte moved to a kibbutz near Kassel, Germany, where she met Herzel Chudy who persuaded her to join her family in America. At some point, Ursula reencountered Herbert Lichtenstein, her friend from Theresienstadt. Herbert emigrated to the United States in 1947 with his grandfather Karl, his only surviving family member. Lieselotte arrived in New York in February 1949 and married Herzel. Ursula and Herbert married in New York in June 1950. Klara, age 67, died in New York on April 20, 1959. Herbert, age 77, died in October 1997. Ruth, age 85, died in 2007. Ursula, age 86, died in January 2011 in New York.

The medal was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2012 by Eleanor Weinstein, the niece of Herbert and Ursula Cohn Lichtenstein.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Eleanor Weinstein