Altona - Theresienstadt. Die Lebenswege von Leon Daniel Cohen und Käthe Starke-Goldschmidt
An exhibition in cooperation with the Friends of Yad Vashem
In January 2023, the exhibition “Sixteen Objects - Seventy Years of Yad Vashem” was shown in the German Bundestag. The history of these objects from the collection of the International Holocaust Memorial Yad Vashem can be traced back to one of the 16 German federal states. The Hamburg object on display was a Torah shrine (Aron Hakodesh) made by Leon Daniel Cohen from Altona, which he took with him to the Theresienstadt concentration camp when he was deported in 1942. In 1944, Leon Daniel Cohen and his family were murdered in Auschwitz. The Torah shrine became part of the Yad Vashem collection.
Now the Torah shrine is temporarily returning to Altona on loan for the exhibition, which was developed in cooperation with the Friends of Yad Vashem. The object forms the starting point for a search for the memories that Leon Daniel Cohen and his family left behind in Hamburg-Altona. Where did they live and work? What can be found out about the family's history? The story of Käthe Starke-Goldschmidt, who was deported from Altona to Theresienstadt in 1943 but fortunately survived the camp, is also examined. When she returned to Hamburg, she brought with her the "Theresienstadt collection" of drawings and documents secretly collected there: thanks to these sources, important conclusions can be drawn about the situation of the Cohen family.
The exhibition makes clear the gap left by the persecution, deportation and murder of Altona residents of Jewish descent. Places such as the Altona synagogues or the Cohen family's homes have been destroyed, and their property was scattered and destroyed during the deportation. Nevertheless, it has been possible to make some of the traces of the lives of Leon Daniel Cohen and Käthe Starke-Goldschmidt visible again and to supplement research into Altona's history during the Nazi era.
The accompanying program for the exhibition is being developed in cooperation with the State Center for Political Education and the Hamburg Memorials and Learning Sites Foundation.
