Kathe Koln Haber

I was born on April 18, 1920 to Adolf and Clara (Furstenberg) Koln (also spelled Koeln). I was the older of two children, Helmuth was my younger brother. Adolf Koln, my father, fought in WWI for the Germans. Although my mother’s family, the Furstenbergs, originally came from Russia, the family lived in Berlin for two generations. I was a “city” girl. My highest level of education was “gymnasium”, high school, in Berlin. I learned English in school as well as knowing a little French. I worked briefly in an office as a typist, bookkeeper until I fled from my home in Germany. My father also worked in an office setting and my mother was a homemaker for the family. My mother Clara was one of six siblings and we were a close knit group.

It is my understanding my father, Adolf, helped many of my mother’s siblings attain visas to leave Berlin to England where some relatives were already living. He, as with many other families at that time, did not feel the sense of urgency to flee since he had fought for Germany and felt, although very misguided, safe to stay. I was already too old to participate in the Kindertransport., so at age 19 in 1939, my father arranged for me to go to London to work with a cousin’s family (Michael Furstenberg) as a “domestic”, nanny.

While growing up in Germany, the family was very Zionistic and my brother and I were involved in the Zionist youth group Betar. Helmuth left Germany to immigrate to Israel, then Palestine, to live on a kibbutz. This would be the last I would ever see of my family.

The family I was sent to live with was not kind to me so after a few months I left them to live with another relative, Werner Furstenberg. My next job was as a nanny for the Brock family who had come to London from Rhodesia. I was nanny for their two boys. I am not clear as to how long I had this position, but I know it ended when the family returned to Rhodesia.

Years later in 1953, I visited them in Africa and I retained a correspondence relationship with one of the “boys” until I passed away. I was very fond of the family. In 1943 I worked as a bookkeeper for a business in London. This continued until I left England at the end of the war.

In August of 1945, wanting to find out what happened to my parents in Germany once the war was over, I volunteered for the American Army as a translator. I found out that my parents had been transported to Auschwitz and killed in the camp. My brother, Helmuth, who had immigrated to Palestine, fought on the British ship the SS Erinpura in Northern Africa against the Germans, but was killed at sea when the ship was bombed and sunk. There is a memorial to the ship with a stone memorializing each person around the perimeter of a pool of water in the Military Cemetery on Har Hertzel in Jerusalem. At the age of 25, I was the only survivor of my immediate family.

On July 7, 1947 I boarded the SS Mauretania in Southampton, England to immigrate to the United States. I was sponsored by a great aunt from my maternal grandmother’s side of the family, Feige Wixon Rabnowitz who lived in Brockton, Massachusetts. There, I met many cousins who greeted me warmly. However, the following year I decided to go to live in New York with a widowed aunt, Berta Furstenberg and cousins, Ruth and Hillel, lived as well as that would offer more opportunities for a single woman. I had become very close with this aunt and cousins when they lived in England during the war. So, my next stop was the Upper West Side of Manhattan and a job as a bookkeeper in a Travel Agency. This job afforded me the opportunity to travel all over the world. I went to Israel, Africa, Europe, Cuba, and South America, but never back to Germany.

In 1956 I met my husband, Sidney Haber on a subway platform. We were married on March 3, 1957 at Yeshiva University in Manhattan in New York City. We honeymooned at the Waldorf Astoria and then to Europe. Nine months later my daughter Carol was born and three years later, my son Howard was born. Howard had Down Syndrome and we were dedicated to enriching his life, although sadly, he passed away at age 26.

I was active and on the Board of Directors for AHRC for over forty years fighting for the rights for individuals with developmental delays. I also continued to work part time as a bookkeeper for my friend’s piano business for many years. I passed away after Sukkot at 89 years old in October of 2009 from complications of chemotherapy for lymphoma. I am survived by my daughter Carol, son-in-law David and three grandchildren, Jonathan, Alana and Ari.