Avigdor Cohnheim (M / Germany, 1941), Holocaust survivor
Avigdor Cohnheim (M / Germany, 1941), Holocaust survivor
- KEYWORDS : <Germany> <Theresienstadt> <Liberation of Theresienstadt> -- <Windermere Children> <England> <United States>
Biography
Avigdor Cohnheim was born April 29, 1941 in Berlin, Germany. Circumstances surrounding his early months and years are unclear. He was deported to Theresienstadt alone in June 1943, as a two-year-old toddler. He had just passed his fourth birthday when he was liberated and brought to England as one of the Windermere Children. From there, he went to live in the Weir Courtney care home with Alice Goldberger and her staff. In 1946, Alice received some surprising news: Avigdor’s mother had survived and was living in Austria. But as was the case for thousands of other child survivors of the Holocaust whose parents also survived, there was to be no happy reunion for Avigdor and his mother. His mother was too emotionally troubled to commit to his care, and he did not see her again until 1959 when, in his late teens, he emigrated to the United States to try to live with her. “It was not what I thought it would be like,” he recalled. “There were times when I wondered what I was doing there.”
Sources
- USHMM Database (Avigdor Cohnheim, 1941) -- YES
- 45aid.org (Avigdor Cohnheim, 1941) -- YES