Karl Kahn
Karl Kahn was born in Baden-Baden, Germany, in 1921, where he attended school and the local gymnasium. His father was an attorney and his mother a homemaker. His paternal grandfather ran a cigar factory in a town about 60 kilometers away, and his grandmother lived in Mannheim. When Hitler came to power in 1933, new laws prevented his father from practicing law freely, forcing him to move his office into their home. His grandmother and an aunt were later deported to a camp at Gurs in France, but the family managed to secure their release and bring them to the United States, where they settled in Dallas, Texas.
In 1936 Karl was sent to a Jewish school in England, which he disliked because it emphasized science rather than the arts he had studied in Germany. His parents reached England in June 1939, just before the war began, settling in the town of Deal in Kent. Karl left for the United States in December 1939, arriving in New York where an uncle met him. Disliking New York, he wrote to a friend in Dallas and soon took the train there. The Jewish Federation arranged for him to board with a Dallas woman, and the community welcomed him warmly. Shortly after arriving, he suffered a ruptured appendix and spent five weeks in the hospital.
In Dallas, Karl worked first as a shipping clerk for a wholesale liquor company and then as an assistant bookkeeper before being drafted into the U.S. Army in September 1942. Serving in headquarters roles after volunteering his shorthand and typing skills, he was discharged in 1946 and returned to Dallas. He became a traveling salesman selling custom jewelry for the Gerson company, a career that lasted 43 years. His father, who had been imprisoned in a concentration camp on Kristallnacht and interned in England as an enemy alien, later worked with restitution laws to help fellow refugees recover their property. A devoted amateur musician, Karl loved Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, and Schumann. He met his wife through their musical families and married her, calling it the happiest time of his life.
Full Transcript
Carl 1921 Baden Baden Germany tell me about being a little boy in Germany in the early 20s early 20s I went to school when I was 6 years old and uh after that I went to the high school which was known as the gimnasium h b in b b now at this time you know this was well before Hitler when you were little that's right and so there was no issues yet that you guys knew of tell me about your parents what did your dad do for living my father was an attorney uhhuh uh-huh and your mom my mother was a lady of leisure a
stay-at-home mom that's right and do you remember your grandparents at all I only remember remember my grandmother on my mother's side which was her mother and my grandfather had been dead for many years and I only remember my grandfather or my father's side because my grandmother on my father's side she had passed away long before I was born okay well tell me what what what did your grandfather do my grandfather or my um uh my father's side he had a cigar Factory in uh and this was where was it in offen BG Germany which is about 60 kilm from b b and what about your
grandmother you knew what what can you tell me about her my grandmother lived in Manheim Germany not too far away from b b together with my mother's sister and uh she was there for many years I never knew my uh grandfather like I mentioned you because he died long before I was born and she unfortunately was deported to gur in in France mhm together with my mother sister and we were very fortunate to get her out of the camp in Gus into Mars which is the main city close by and finally got them over here to the United States both of them and so both
my aunt and my grandmother Liv in uh Talis Texas when did your family start to notice the changes taking place in Germany the minute Hitler came to power which was 1933 that's the changes took place right then and there and so we're because there were so many laws passed where my father couldn't practice law and more and things like that and so what did your family decide to do my my father uh started to apply for entry to uh United States but that took a long long time in those days because there was just very few applicants that were uh got a permission to apply
to uh on an immigration but I know my father couldn't practice law anymore except from his home where we lived so he moved his office to his home in in his office downtown in B Bon he had two employees at home he didn't need anybody right because he lost most of his uh clients do you remember him talking about that at all to you well I saw that with my own eyes yeah I still was in Germany so when did you guys get out of Germany well I left for England in 1936 that's when I went to England to school mhm and I first went
to school in um brighten ho which is 60 M south of London it was a Jewish school I hated every minute of it why was that because Ste the the courses they taught were all science courses and I grew up in the uh Arts uh right uh in in Germany course the gimnasium it's called was strictly art mhm now did your parents were they able to get out of uh Germany too yes and where did they go we had very influential friends in London and they got them to England so you got everybody was in London while you were going to school they were able
to come there to then well uh I had already been out of school when they came to England they came to England in June of 1939 the war started September the 1st wow so they just made it they just made it we lived in the small town called deal d e a l that's in Kent that's the state and um I was able to leave for the United States in in um December of 1939 the war had started already September the 1st but I left my parents behind in that town together with my uncle and aunt also from Germany and they had rented a duplex
what finally made the decision for you to say I'm going to the United States that my parents made that decision okay I had nothing to do with that okay and now did you come here with them or on your own no no I came me the myself and I arrived at the end of 1939 in New York uh I was met by my uncle the my father had an older sister she lived in New York and she was married to this gentleman and he met me at the boat in uh New York and he took me to his house after that and I didn't like
New York at all nothing but brick walls is all I saw apartments in brick walls so that's when I R away send a letter to my friend here in Dallas and I told him ask him but the offer is still good and that that I speak English fluent English and he is's the one that wrote back everybody in Texas in the United States speaks English but come to Dallas and two weeks later I was on the train to Dallas Texas now what's going through your head are do you have any clue what you're going to do did you sit and say to yourself what am
I doing here I had no idea but I trusted him and he put me up at the YMCA here downtown Dallas for 50 cents a night mhm that's where I stayed for a while before I moved to South Boulevard where the Jewish Federation or what you on poaha Street made arrangements to be a border at Dallas Jewish lady her name was lenina menthor menthor was a very famous name here in Dallas at that time menthor was an insurance agent and everybody knew the mittenthal family mhm MH and that's where the Jewish Federation put me up as a border so the Jewish community of Dallas immediately
welcomed you oh very much to the town very much so so I after five or six days I moved in with her everything was fine until the 15th of January the 15th of January 1940 I came down with a ruptured appendix oh boy so there was a Jewish doctor I my father knew from Germany who was here and another and surgeon and they put me right away into the hospital and that was it was a jary the 15th I was in the hospital for five weeks because it was head ruptured and they didn't have all these Peds and so forth at that time I when
I didn't get better The Firm I was with decided to bring in another doctor and he decided to put a train pipe in me after five weeks in the hospital I was back on my feet right now you said the firm you were with who were you working with already in Dallas Julie ships wholesale liquers okay okay and what was your uh position with them I was a shipping clerk uhhuh okay yeah okay now how did you communicate back home to your folks in England was it did you use the telephone or was it just by letter by strictly by letters so when the time
when you got sick you wrote a letter to tell them what was going on with you no no that was a bad mistake I made I didn't write to them and they got very worried about me so you're here alone you just recovered tell me about what what do you get into now what do you do well I'm a shipping drug at the jewelry ships wholesale liquor company right and I worked there for quite some time and I noticed there's no way I can advance here so I met an CPA who was a c his name was Sam seagler still remember him very vividly he
says Carl if you want to make a change let me know and I put you with another firm and he did I told him I want to make a change because I'm not getting anywhere I'm being taken advantage of right here so he put me up with a glacious wholesale druck they also did a good business they were competitors as a matter of fact right and then I went to them and what position did you have there I was a bookkeeper okay assistant bookkeeper and then uh guess what happened I was drafted and that was the end of that right I went to the Army
about the local Jewish Community here in Dallas how have you seen it grow and how have you seen it Embrace people like yourself that come from other places they were very very helpful at the time when I needed them and my parents needed them very very helpful and have you been involved with them the Jewish Community well we had we had an organization called here which was copied after an organization in New York City called self-help and uh they made sure that the refugees that came stay together and they taken care of right right and how have you seen this community grow the Jewish Community
it's unbelievable unbelievable and when I came to Dallas Dallas had a population of of 225,000 people total yeah yeah and today how many million are there yeah yeah okay now World War II you know affected everybody of course but coming from Germany what were your thoughts on that well I had no special thoughts I had to get away from Germany everybody knew what was going to happen there and my father he was too slow too slow in the pickup I would say he waited too long yeah yeah oh was hard to get out though you said well he was taken to the concentration camp on
crystal night he your dad was uhhuh he spent 6 weeks there and then when I was able to S secure a Visa for him for England that's when he got out of the concentration came and then came to England very shortly thereafter what what year was that that he was taken 39 39 yeah Crystal night was 38 November 38th and he was able to they let him out of the camps oh yes as long as I could get rid of the Jews yeah what about your mom my mom followed my father she was in in b b by herself and figured after to get things
ready so we can immigrate and that's how it came about that this then then went to England okay oh wow hm so now you're in the United States Army I was inducted in in September of 42 and you in the Infantry were they training you for anything special nothing but you know which I didn't know because you should never volunteer in Army and one day one morning they asked is there anybody here that can take short hand and use a typewriter I'm the only one that raised the arm so you had a job I had a job a permanent job for the entire war first
I was in Battalion headquarters very shortly I moved to regimental uh headquarters and then I was in the main camp at the what's called irtc Headquarters right and what What state were you in yeah Alabama in Alabama okay and the C was in Anderson Alabama so now the war comes to an end and uh you leave the service you were discharged in 46 46 when I left the Army okay and where did you you come back to Dallas I came back to Dallas of course was your job waiting for you no well the job more or less was waiting for me but it was not
attractive at that time right because I had high somebody else right right so uh I I became a a traveling salesman mhm and I was on the road for 43 years where did you meet your wife I'm met in Dallas I had a birthday and my parents and her parents came together quite often either to play bridge or play music uh they were we were all amateur musicians and uh that Sunday when parents called they said we can't make it today because it's our son's birthday so her parents said you bring your son along and we'll celebrate together and that's how how it started and
how did she put up with you traveling all the time she got used to it yeah yeah she got used to it yeah it wasn't easy because sometimes I was gone two to three weeks yeah yeah yeah I couldn't come home every weekend yeah what was the happiest time in your life when I Mar her what did your folks tell you life was like in the concentration camps never talked about it never talked about it never talked about it what was it like the day they were captured or picked up or I was I wasn't there I was in England in school and they never
said anything about it never how did you find out well uh I didn't find out the details ever they never talked about it after the war did they talk at all about it yeah they didn't talk about it and when did you bring them to the United States it wasn't that easy I was in the United States the war had started over there full force my father was intered as an enemy alien in England on the aisle of man and my mother moved to the Midland in uh to L low in shopshire that's where she moved to together with my uncle and Aunt the frustration
for your dad who was a practicing attorney for years and end to be going through this and he never talked about how he felt through all this what he wanted not to be reminded that's only thing I can say and when your folks came to the United States could you tell that they have a a feeling of relief Joy what was it like for them to come to the United States but let me put it this way to you it wasn't easy after all don't forget we couldn't take any money out of Germany that was the big problem right $10 is all you could take
with you they kept all the money in Germany my father got his first job job he got it through the Federation he was the elevator operate of the freight elevator at neim Marcus he operated a freight elevator wow that was his first job and after that I was able to he get him a job at should shepson company yeah and did he ever practice law again no no but he did let me later on in 195 3 54 the restitution laws came into force uhhuh and my father was very very busy helping all the refugees uh trying to get their money back in possessions back
and were they able to accomplish any of that oh definitely yeah definitely my father was a good attorney now in your lifetime you live through so many momentous occasions you know obviously World War II traveling to the United States we had a president assassinated here in this country uh something good the moon landing of course 911 was there something that really affected you on the national scene after You' already been in the United States not at all sort of everything just took it in stride that's right you know what's the best music Mozart bethoven melson schuber but Schuman those are my favorites yeah yeah and
that's what I play you spent 43 years on the road as a Salesman what were what were you selling custom jewelry okay for the same company all those years same company and what company was that the name of the company was Gren company g e r s o n Gren company they still around oh yes very much so yeah yeah very much so but not the costom jewelry business anymore yeah completely change because costum jewelry itself has become a different entity to the S and today stores uh when they buy custom jewelry particular small st was the ones we sold to at the time they
go to people like Sam Moon here in Dallas right right yeah that was a competition in two days from the day we're doing this taping it'll be your 64th wedding anniversary mhm what's your wife's name rata a n a t e and together you had three children that's right well thanks for doing this today my pleasure