Lilly Cohn / Lillyan Rosenberg (F / Germany, 1928), Holocaust survivor
Lilly Cohn / Lillyan Rosenberg (F / Germany, 1928), Holocaust survivor
- KEYWORDS : <Refugees> <Kindertransport> <England>
USHMM Profile
Lilly Cohn (later Lyllyan Rosenberg) was born on January 30, 1928, to Ernst and Margarete Cohn in Halberstadt, Germany. Following the Kristallnacht pogrom in November 1938, they decided send Lillyan away on a Kindertransport. In March 1939, the Cohns received news that guardians, Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Allen, had been found for Lilly in England. Soon after, Lilly left her parents and older brother, Werner, to travel to England via the Kindertransport. The last time that Lilly saw her parents was at the train station in Germany. Ernst and Margarete were deported, first, to Poland and then to Auschwitz where they perished. Her brother, Werner, arrived in England one day before World War II started on September 1, 1939. He lived with an aunt in London. The Cohn siblings finished their schooling in England and emigrated to the United States in 1946 where they settled in New York.
Lilly began her diary on her eleventh birthday in Halberstadt. She wrote throughout 1939 capturing details of her daily life playing with friends and visiting with family members. She then described the bureaucratic details of her emigration in England in July 1939. She did not write gain until June 1942, when she recounted he story of her adjustment to a new life in England. She continued to write sporadically until mid-1944.
Museum of Tolerance
Born Jan. 30, 1928 - Halberstadt, Germany
Lillyan was a five year-old schoolgirl when Hitler came to power in 1933. She lived with her parents, Ernest and Margarete, and her older brother, Werner. Halberstadt was a center of Orthodox Jewry in Germany. After 1933, the Jews of Germany were slowly pauperized and constantly humiliated. In 1935, the Nazis enacted the anti-Jewish "Nuremberg Laws." Jews were stripped of their German citizenship.
Believing that the harsh restrictions and the daily ostracism were only temporary, Lillyan's family did not attempt to leave Germany where their family had lived for generations. Many others, however, did leave.
As conditions worsened, most German Jews became desperate to leave. Their ability to do so was limited, as most were impoverished. Additionally, other countries began restricting the number of Jews they would allow in. German Jews were trapped.
On the night of November 9-10, 1938 a centrally planned, country-wide riot against the Jews occurred. Arson and the destruction of Jewish-owned property took place in every single town where Jews lived. That night was known afterwards as Kristallnacht because of all the broken glass found in the streets.
World opinion was aghast at the horror and violence of that night. Individuals and organizations in various countries attempted to remove as many endangered children as possible from Nazi Germany. On December 2, 1938, a first transport of 320 children was sent to England. By September 1939, 9,354 children were evacuated. The transports were halted at the outbreak of war. Lillyana's parents managed to find a place for their eleven year-old daughter on a transport to England. Her parents and older brother, Werner, saw the train off.