Elsa Cohn nee Prestel and James Cohn - Jewish Refugees

 

Having just read a another  book about Auschwitz, I was reminded of a lady who used to be one of our neighbours in our block of flats  when I was a child. Elsa Alma Marie Prestel b 1912 was the daughter of Albert Prestel and Anna Licht in Sonnenburg, Brandenberg. She had met James Cohn a French Polisher  b 1911 and was and amateur dancer and his dancing partner for three years before their marriage. Elsa and James had married in Berlin in 1933. Hitler had come to power the year they were married. At that time Jews made up less than 1% of the German population and trouble was brewing for Jewish people.

Elsa and James Cohn Wed 1933

 

She was a Jewish refugee who departed her homeland of Germany from Berlin before the atrocities of World War II. Elsa and her husband James Cohn born 1911 along with his parents Nathan and Elsa, they were four of the 70,000 people who fled from Berlin to England with the hope of starting a new life before the start of the war.

There they waited to be accepted by another country. They lived and worked as merchants in London.

James and Elsa were in their mid-20s and his parents, Elsa and Nathan, were in their 50s.  They were escaping from persecution, restrictions on money, restrictions on moving their money, and were lucky enough not to end up being murdered in ghettos or taken to German concentration camps for a certain death and James and his father were merchants in London during their wait.

Shipping List "Jervis Bay" 1939

   

They left London for Sydney  along with other Stateless  Germans, Poles, Croations etc on the “Jervis Bay” around  April 1939.

Elsa and James arrived in Sydney in mid May on the “Jervis Bay”.  I believe his brother and sister in law had already arrived as well. After living for a short while in inner-city Sydney, they were supported by the Australian Jew Welfare Society. There, they received some farm training from the Chelsea Park Farm in northwest Sydney. Being German and with war brewing, they were heavily scrutinised by locals.

Local charities helped them form a tight-knit community, which was essential for survival as they were. Later in 1939, they were supported by refugee settlement support services with some financial assistance from the Australian Government. In 1939, the Hebrew Standard reported that they had departed the Chelsea Park Training Farm for work in the country as a married couple. The Cohn’s moved to Goulburn on a farm employment scheme, but they soon returned to Sydney and worked in various positions. Elsa was a dressmaker and James  previously, a French polisher became a Salesman.

The Hebrew Standard 1939

During the war, James enlisted with the CMF, the Citizens Military Force, as a private in the Employment Company where he spent 1,200 days from 1942 to 1945.

After his stint in the CMF, Elsa and James applied for their Certificates of Naturalisation as stateless persons in September 1945. They began living in Edgecliff Road, Woollahra next door to my grandparents and below my uncle's flat from about 1946. James would probably have hit it off with my grandfather, who was a furniture designer. The Cohns lived in the apartment from 1946  for roughly 14 years. I was born in 1955, so I knew Elsa for several years.

By 1952 James had received some German restitution payments which he shared with Elsa.

I had always wondered why I had not known a Mr Cohn to attach to Elsa. Her marriage broke down, firstly in 1956 when James went to live with another woman  for a number of weeks. After returning, he had several affairs and eventually planned to marry Dorothy Brown, a lady he had met at work.  I read all about it in the Divorce proceedings!

The two apartment blocks they all lived in were like living in “Number 96”. Scandalous goings on but James and Elsa were not alone as there were plenty of people to compare notes with on “how to proceed with divorce”. My Grandfather and  2 Uncles (one of them twice)  had all consulted lawyers about marital issues in recent years.    See story  "The Days of our Lives" at 318 Edgecliff Rd Woollahra

Officially, the grounds for James and Elsa’s divorce were desertion, but the divorce records divulged that the marriage was never consummated, nor did Elsa want to adopt children. Poor old James was frustrated by life with single beds!

Elsa moved to Bondi after the divorce in 1968. Even though we moved in 1960 we still managed to run into her over the years when we visited my aunt in years to come.

I will always remember her smile and the clothes she wore, but cannot remember her accent. I suppose she had one. James died in September 1976 and  Elsa some time after.

Here she is pictured with my Auntie Airdrie, who lived in the flat above her.

                 

 

I started off searching for Elsa's back story, found her born in Germany, married in '33, stateless in London in '39, and arriving in Sydney in '39. She declared as a natural British citizen in 1945, and her divorce several years later provided more information about her. Looking at Ancestry records i feel her parents and brother didn't make it through the war.

I realise now they were most likely good friends of my grandparents, my auntie, and mother. I reflect on her story after the events of Bondi 2025 and growing anti-Semitism in Australia and Sydney. I can't believe some people deny the Holocaust and the events before and that they can feel they can persecute these same poor people years later . No wonder they formed close knit communities. Seems to me the Cohns and their cohorts were perfectly productive members of Sydney society from the word go. Not to mention friends and neighbours. There but for the grace of God go I.

May they rest in peace and I need not say this should never happen again.