Flora CAHEN (1874-1944) et Mirthil CAHEN (1873-1944)

Flora and Mirthil Cahen, personal archives, ©Howard Baum

The biography you are about to read was written by the 9th grade students from class 3eA at the Franco-German junior high and high school in Buc, in the Yvelines department of France, under the guidance of their German teachers, Lisa Rech and Marianne Hoock-Douilly, and their history teacher, Hélène Guerder. The school is jointly administered by the French and German governments, and focuses on biculturalism and French-German relations. The biography is therefore available in both French and German, in keeping with the school’s ethos, and has also been translated into English so that Flora and Mirthil Cahen’s descendants, who live in the United States, can read it.

Our research focused on three deportees: Flora and Mirthil Cahen, and Riven Kirschbaum. Our work took us from Paris, where all three lived, to Berlin, where Riven Kirschbaum was born. We felt it was important to learn more about their lives in these places before, during, and, in Riven Kirschbaum’s case, after World War II.

Although this biography focuses only on Flora and Mirthil Cahen, we encourage you to read our biography of Riven Kirschbaum as well.

Enjoy!

I. MIRTHIL’S ROOTS

Mirthil Marx Cerf Cahen was born on May 4, 1873, in Metzervisse, then in Germany (now in the Moselle department of France), where his family had lived for several generations. His parents, Louis Cahen and Mathilde Cerf[1], were Jewish. Louis Cahen was a butcher.

Mirthil Cahen’s birth certificate, Metzervisse town hall

The village had been home to a Jewish community since at least the 18th century[2]. In 1748, a small synagogue was built there, which helped the community to grow. This synagogue was located at 13 Grand’rue, but was not visible from the street: access was via a private house, usually that of the rabbi [3]. In the mid-19th century, 17% of the population of Metzervisse was Jewish[4]. The daily life of the village’s Jewish community was very similar to that of the other residents: they all spoke the same dialect, Luxembourgish Franconian. Many also understood French and German[5].

The members of the Jewish community in Metzervisse worked in various trades: butcher, cattle dealer, peddler, acting middlemen with farmers for basic necessities, grocers, etc.[6] The Jewish cemetery in Metzervisse is believed to be one of the oldest in the department (probably built shortly after the synagogue; this cemetery is now located on the D60 road, in the center of the village).

The Jewish cemetery in Metzervisse from the D60 road, personal archives,
© Hélène Guerder, 2024

Mirthil had three siblings: Régine Cahen (born in 1869), Berthe-Hortense Cahen (born in 1871), and Simon Cahen (born in 1878), who was also murdered in Auschwitz on February 15, 1944, along with his wife, Laura Schwartz[7].

FLORA

Flora Kaufmann was born on May 8, 1874, in the Hilbringen district of the town of Merzig in Saarland, Germany[8].

Flora Kaufmann’s birth certificate, Landesarchiv, Saarbrücken

This area had been part of the German Empire since its foundation in 1871. Flora came from a Jewish family with three children. Her parents were Karoline and Feist and she had a sister, Ida, (born November 13, 1878) and a brother, Hermann.

Ida, Flora, and Hermann Kaufmann © Shoah Memorial/Coll. Simon Oungre

Flora spent her youth in this small town in Saarland with a population of around 6,000, where the Jewish community represented around 8% of the population[9]. There was a synagogue and several shops run by Jewish families, including Kaufhaus Kahn at 15 Kirchplatz, a building that is still standing today[10].

Feist Kaufmann died in 1891, when Flora was 17 and her sister Ida was 13.

The Kaufhaus Kahn building, personal archives © Hélène Guerder, 2024

Flora’s sister, Ida[11], married Julius Kahn in 1900[12]. Julius Kahn (born in 1867) was a cattle dealer. Ida and Julius lived at 66 Hochwaldstraße in Merzig[13].

II. MIRTHIL AND FLORA’S LIFE TOGETHER IN METZERVISSE AND THIONVILLE

Flora and Mirthil Cahen were married on January 17, 1899, in Metzervisse[14], which was still in Germany at the time. Their first daughter Mathilde was born there on March 13, 1900[15], followed by their second daughter Ester on February 22, 1902[16]. They lived at 53 Grand-Rue. Their grocery store was located on the ground floor.

Mirthil and Flora Cahen’s grocery store © Shoah Memorial/Coll. Simon Oungre

On August 3, 1914, when war was declared on France, Mirthil was drafted into the German army.

Mirthil Cahan © Shoah Memorial/Simon Oungre Collection

He was sent to fight as a private in East Prussia. Flora and their daughters remained in Metzervisse.

After the end of World War I, on November 11, 1918, Moselle once again became part of France As a result, the Cahens became French citizens.

On August 18, 1921, in Metzervisse, Mathilde married Max Baum, a German doctor born in Bacharach (Rhineland-Palatinate) on March 21, 1894, and who lived in Hilbringen (Saarland), around 20 miles from Metzervisse.

The marriage certificate states that the spouses were “of the Jewish faith.”[17] The Concordat regime in Alsace-Moselle had introduced a specific regulatory framework for religious groups in 1802. Religion was therefore included in civil status records.

By marrying a foreigner, Mathilde lost her French nationality and took that of her husband.

 

Mathilde Cahen and Max Baum’s marriage certificate, Metzervisse town hall

The couple moved to Mechenerstraße in Hilbringen, where their only son, Edgar Baum, was born on October 13, 1922[18].

Edgar Baum’s birth certificate, no. 110, Landesarchiv Saarbrücken

A few weeks later, tradegy struck the family. Ester (known as Else) Cahen, Flora and Mirthil’s youngest daughter, became sick and died on November 26, 1922, at her parents’ home in Metzervisse. She was 20 years old, unemployed, and unmarried. There is an error on her death certificate, which first states that she was “Catholic” and then “Jewish.”

Flora and Esther Cahen, © Shoah Memorial/Simon Oungre Collection

Ester Cahen’s death certificate, Metzervisse town hall

Flora and Mirthil had a home in Thionville, where Mirthil set himself up as a furniture repairer. We do not know whether they moved there or if it was a second home, nor do we know exactly when they arrived there.

Mirthil Cahen © Shoah Memorial/Simon Oungre Collection

Edgar Baum, their only grandson, joined them there in 1934, having left his family home in Germany due to the worsening conditions for Jews under the Third Reich. He did not speak French at first, but learned it very quickly[19].

His parents, Mathilde and Max Baum, also decided to move to France to escape anti-Semitic persecution when the the Third Reich annexed Saarland following a referendum in 1935. They had to leave behind their beautiful home, Max’s medical practice, their car, and all their possessions. The couple set up home in Paris, in a small two-room apartment at 12/14 rue du Général Niox, in the 16th district. As a refugee from the Saarland, Max Baum was not allowed to practice medicine in France. He did not speak French at the time, so took classes to enable him to integrate more quickly into French society and so he could become a French citizen later on. He still needed to make a living, however, so he became a masseur. Edgar stayed on with his maternal grandparents in Thionville, who pampered him, and did well in school. In 1938, when he was 16, had to leave school so went to live with his parents in Paris, with no prospect of continuing his education. One of his father’s clients, a businessman, offered him a job as an apprentice. Edgar did not enjoy the world of commerce, but was grateful to have been given the opportunity nonetheless. Max Baum, Flora and Mirthil’s son-in-law, became a French citzen by decree on January 19, 1939, along with his wife Mathilde and his son Edgar[20].

French Official Journal dated January 29, 1939

There is a photo of Mirthil and Edgar with their family and cousins in Alençon, in the Orne department of France, on Pentecost in 1939, which Béatrice Heffès entrusted to the Shoah Memorial[21].

III. LIFE DURING THE WAR, ARREST AND DEPORTATION

On August 19, 1939, another tragedy befell Mirthil and Flora: their daughter Mathilde died in Paris at the age of 39 after a short illness. Her son Edgar was devastated, convinced that his mother had become sick due to the despair of being driven into exile from her home in the Saarland.[22] She was buried on August 22 in the Jewish cemetery in Metzervisse[23]. Just a few days later, war was declared, which prevented the family from observing the Jewish mourning period, the shiva[24].

Max Baum, Mathilde’s husband, enlisted in the French army[25]. After Mathilde died, Flora and Mirthil Cahen moved to Paris in September 1939 to be with their 17-year-old grandson, Edgar[26]. They left their large apartment in Thionville and moved into their daughter’s old apartment at 12/14 rue du Général Niox. All their belongings in Moselle were subsequently looted[27].

On June 21, 1940, the Germans marched into Paris. Edgar fled on his bicycle, during what became known as the exodus[28]. Flora and Mirthil, aged 66 and 67, decided to remain in the German-occupied capital. Edgar stayed for a while in Limoges, in the Haute-Vienne department of France. While he was there, he happened bump into his father, who was hiding from the French and German police, who were hunting down German Jews in order to send them to concentration camps (Max and Edgar, like many other foreigners and Jews, were stripped of their French nationality on January 26, 1942, following a review of their situation in 1941)[29].

French Official Journal dated January 30, 1942, p. 421, “Decree No. 113 of January 26, 1942, on the withdrawal of French nationality” (Ministry of Justice).

In 1941, Edgar moved to Lyon, in the Rhone department of France. He then found out that his father had married Régine, known as Bronner, Raber in Nieul in the Haute-Vienne department on January 18, 1942. Despite the danger, he crossed the demarcation line twice to visit his maternal grandparents in Paris. His German paternal grandparents were deported to Theresienstadt, where they were murdered by the Nazis[30]. Edgar noticed that Flora and Mirthil were really struggling due to the food rationing [31]. In late 1942, he went to see them again, this time under a false identity with some counterfeit ration coupons[32]. He later recounted in his memoires that took care of his grandparents as well as he could, but did not move in with them so as not to put them in danger if he was arrested by the Gestapo[33]. Flora and Mirthil were over 70 years old by then, and living in extreme poverty. Max Baum was also living in Paris, together with his new wife, and was working as an interpreter[34].

As of June 7, 1942, Flora and Mirthil had to wear the yellow star, as did all Jews living in the occupied zone[35]. Thanks to his cousin Louis, Edgar got a job in a factory that was working for the Germans. The manager of the firm, who was German and knew that Edgar was Jewish, prevented him from being arrested and deported in 1944, when the police came to arrest him after someone had reported him[36].

In her diary, Ida Kahn mentioned Mirthil, Flora, and Edgar several times between February 18 and September 23, 1942. She wrote about their letters, good and bad news about life during the occupation, and how Mirthil was seeking information about some family members who were interned in the Pithiviers camp (Gustel Bonnem, Ida and Julius’ daughter, and her children Berthold and Edith[37] had been arrested during the roundup in Alençon and the surrounding area in July).

Julius and Ida Kahn, who had moved to Alençon in the Orne department in 1935, were arrested at their home at 25 rue des Granges on October 9, 1942, along with Rébecca Bonnem (79) and Rudolf Bonnem (13)[38]. On November 5, 1942, they were taken from Alençon to Drancy camp, and then deported on to Auschwitz the following day on Convoy 42. None of them survived.

On July 11, 1944, a few weeks after the Allied landings in Normandy, Flora and Mirthil, aged 70 and 71 respectively, were arrested at their home at 12/14 Rue du Général Niox and interned in the Drancy transit camp.[39]

Serge Klarsfeld, Memorial to the Deportation of Jews from France, available at the Shoah Memorial, Paris

Flora and Mirthil, along with 1,304 other people, were deported from Drancy to Auschwitz on Convoy 77, the last large convoy to leave Bobigny station for Auschwitz, on July 31, 1944. They had been in Drancy for twenty days. Paris was liberated just three weeks later. Due to their age, they would have been sent to the gas chambers and murdered along with 834 other deportees, including more than 250 children, as soon as they arrived at Auschwitz II Birkenau on the night August 3-4, 1944[40]. It is also possible that, like many other elderly and sick people, they did not even survive the appaling travelling conditions.

After the Liberation of Paris, Louis, Edgar Baum’s cousin, took over Flora and Mirthil’s apartment, which fortunately had remained intact, as the Nazis had not had time to loot it. Edgar meanwhile, had enlisted in the French army in September 1944 and, after two months training, served as a radio operator until May 1945. After the war ended on May 8, 1945, he served in Allied-occupied Germany. He was discharged from the army in December 1945, and then returned to Paris[41].

A commemorative plaque at the entrance to the Jewish cemetery in Metzervisse bears the inscription “In memory of the descendants of Louis and Mathilde Cahen, who died in Auschwitz, with no grave, as victims of Nazism.” In total, sixteen members of the Cahen family were murdered in Auschwitz.

Memorial stone in the Jewish cemetery in Metzervisse, personal archives,
© Hélène Guerder, 2024

IV. AMERICAN DESCENDANTS

Edgard Baum, Flora and Mirthil’s grandson and their only direct descendant, emigrated to the United States on July 9, 1946[42]. He went to join his maternal great-uncle, Hermann Kaufmann (Flora’s brother), who had been living near Los Angeles since 1930[43]. On March 24, 1951, he married Estelle S. Podlipski, who was born on February 7, 1924, in New York.[44] They had two children: Marsha (born in April 1953) and Howard (born on March 17, 1964).[45] Edgar Baum died in Los Angeles on October 9, 2012.[46]

https://fr.findagrave.com

We found Howard Baum (Flora and Mirthil Cahen’s great-grandson) and his son Brandon on social media. We got in touch with them on January 8, 2025 and then had the opportunity to speak with Howard, his wife Rosa, and their three children: Brandon, Joshua, and Savannah during an online meeting on February 6, 2025.

Photograph of Flora and Mirthil Cahen’s American descendants. From left to right: Joshua and Brandon, Flora and Mirthil’s great-grandsons; Howard, another great-grandson, holding their great-great-grandson, Oliver; and Rosa, Howard’s wife. Flora and Mirthil’s great-great-granddaughter, Savannah, is second from the right. ©Brandon Baum personal archives.

During the video call, Howard told us that his father, Edgar Baum, never spoke about what he did during the war. However, in 2004, he wrote his memoirs for his grandchildren, Brandon, Joshua, and Savannah[47]. Howard was kind enough to share with us these memoirs, in which he recounted much of his life before, during, and after World War II[48].

V. FRENCH DESCENDANTS

Ida Kahn, Flora’s sister, who lived in Merzig, left the Saarland with her entire family in 1935, the year the Saarland was annexed by Germany, to escape the anti-Semitic persecution of the National Socialist regime[49].

Ida and her husband Julius went to join their eldest son, Alfred Kahn, and his wife, as well as their daughter Béatrice and the rest of their family, a total of 19 people, in Alençon in the Orne department of France[50].

Ida began writing a diary [51] on February 12, 1942, documenting not only the difficulties of daily life for a Jewish family during the war, but also how some family members fled to the free zone and how others had been arrested, which made her very anxious.

She wrote the last page of her diary on October 6, 1942, three days before she was arrested, on October 9[52].

Ida mentions Mirthil and Flora several times in her diary. The appendices to the diary include a family tree[53] featuring Herbert Friedemann, Ida’s grandson and Flora and Mirthil’s great-nephew, now 95 years old. He is the last living person to have known Flora and Mirthil Cahen.

On March 11, 2025, Herbert Friedemann spoke to us about his experiences during World War II. He spoke in particular about the two attempts he, his mother and brothers made to cross the demarcation line to join his father, their arrival in the free zone in November 1941, and how they reached Saint-Nicolas-La-Chapelle in the Savoie department of France, which was in the Italian-controlled zone, on February 28, 1943[54] . He described in great detail his life as a hidden child and the constant risk of being arrested by the Nazis. His invaluable testimony gave us a better understanding of the lives of Jews living in hiding in France between 1939 and 1945.

Témoignage d’Herbert Friedemann au Lycée Franco-Allemand, 11 mars 2025

Notes & réfences

[1] Cahen, Mirthil, birth certificate, Metzervisse town hall.

[2] Jacki Kleiser, La Communauté juive de Metzervisse, vie et culture (The Jewish Community of Metzervisse, Life and Culture), self-published, donated by the Metzervisse Town Hall, p. 1.

[3] Jacki Kleiser, op. cit., p. 3. This refers to the hazzan, or “cantor,” who sings in the synagogue.

[4] Jacki Kleise, op. cit., p. 2.

[5] Jacki Kleiser, op. cit., p. 12.

[6] Jacki Kleiser, op. cit.

[7] https://lesdeportesdesarthe.wordpress.com/cahen-simon/

[8] Flora Kaufmann, birth certificate, Geburtsakt Nr. 47, Landesarchiv Saarbrücken

[9] de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merzig

de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synagoge_ (Merzig)

[10] This is the Kahn Restaurant Bar, which preserves the memory of the place through a photo exhibition and the restoration of the historic façade of the Kaufhaus; see also www.alemannia-judaica.de

[11] Le Journal d’Ida Kahn, February-October 1942, translation and presentation by Joë Friedemann, history collection – Éditions Elkana, Foreword, p. 7.

[12] The Diary of Ida Kahn, February-October 1942, op. cit., p. 75.

[13] https://www.erinnert-euch.de/de/erinnerungsort/1199/1204/1355/hochwaldstra%C3%9Fe—stolpersteine- familie-kahn

[14] Marriage certificate of Mirthil and Flora Cahen, Metzervisse Town Hall

[15] Birth certificate of Mathilde Cahen, Metzervisse Town Hall

[16] Birth certificate of Ester Cahen, Metzervisse Town Hall

[17] Marriage certificate of Mathilde Cahen and Max Baum, Metzervisse Town Hall

[18] Edgar Baum, Birth certificate no. 110, Landesarchiv Saarbrücken.

[19] Memoirs of Edgar Baum, p. 2, private archives of Howard Baum (United States).

[20] Memoirs of Edgar Baum, pp. 2–3, private archives of Howard Baum (United States). AN, naturalization file 14694 X 38. Official Journal, January 29, 1939.

[21] ressources.memorialdelashoah.org

[22] Memoirs of Edgar Baum, ibid., p. 3.

[23] Ida Kahn’s Diary, February-October 1942, op. cit., pp. 29-30: “August 19, 1942. Three years ago, Alfred and I left for Paris to be at Thilde’s bedside as she was dying. […] On Tuesday, August 22, 1939, the funeral took place in the presence of a large crowd.”

[24] The Diary of Ida Kahn, February–October 1942, ibid., p. 58.

[25] Memoirs of Edgar Baum, op. cit., p. 3,

[26] Memoirs of Edgar Baum, ibid.

[27] Memoirs of Edgar Baum, ibid.

[28] Memoirs of Edgar Baum, ibid., p. 4

[29] National Archives, Reference numbers: BB/27/1422-BB/27/1445; Vichy’s denaturalized citizens: letters A to C. Decree published in the Official Journal of January 30, 1942.

[30] Memoirs of Edgar Baum, op. cit., p. 5. Theresienstadt (Terezin) was a Nazi deportation camp in Czechoslovakia occupied by the armies of the Third Reich.

[31] Memoirs of Edgar Baum, op. cit., p. 4.

[32] Memoirs of Edgar Baum, ibid., p. 5.

[33] Memoirs of Edgar Baum, ibid., p. 4.

[34] Memoirs of Edgar Baum, ibid., p. 5.

[35] Verordnungsblatt des Militärbefehlhabers in Frankreich (VOBIF) of June 7, 1942

[36] Memoirs of Edgar Baum, p. 5, ibid.

[37] Ida Kahn’s Diary, February-October 1942, op. cit.

[38] Minutes drawn up by the Alençon police commissioner on October 17, 1942, marked “Arrest of Jews,” published in Ida Kahn’s Diary, February-October 1942, op. cit. p. 67.

[39] Memoirs of Edgar Baum, op. cit., p. 6.

[40] Serge Klarsfeld, Memorial to the Deportation of Jews from France.

[41] Memoirs of Edgar Baum, ibid, p. 6.

[42] Memoirs of Edgar Baum, February 11, 2004, ibid., p. 6.

[43] Memoirs of Edgar Baum, February 11, 2004, ibid., p. 6, ibid.

[44] Baum family tree, provided by Howard Baum (United States).

[45] Memoirs of Edgar Baum, February 11, 2004, ibid.

[46] https://fr.findagrave.com

[47] Baum family tree, personal archives of Howard Baum (United States)

[48] Memoirs of Edgar Baum, ibid., p. 2.

[49] Ida Kahn’s Diary, February-October 1942, op. cit., p. 76 (appendices)

[50] The Diary of Ida Kahn, February-October 1942, op. cit., pp. 7, 8, and 9 (foreword)

[51] The Diary of Ida Kahn, February-October 1942, op. cit.

[52] The Diary of Ida Kahn, February-October 1942, op. cit., p. 65 (appendices).

[53] The Diary of Ida Kahn, February-October 1942, op. cit., pp. 72-73 (appendices).

[54] Until September 1943, the Italian occupation zone was a refuge for persecuted Jews. “In fact, the Italian authorities provided a certain degree of protection to Jews in this territory, refraining from applying many of the anti-Semitic measures implemented by the Germans and the Vichy authorities in the rest of France,” in: https://www.museedelaresistanceenligne.org