Lest We Forget® - Additional Information Close Window 

  Rabbi Murray Kohn

Rabbi Murray Kohn was born in 1929, in Ciechanow, Poland,. He lived there with his mother, Martha, his sister Ida, and his father Elias, a businessman who traded wheat. Rabbi Kohn recalls a happy childhood with many friends and loving relatives. This changed with the Nazi occupation of Poland in the fall of 1939. For the first year of the occupation, Ciechanow was 'ghettoless.' Consequently, Rabbi Kohn's family was able to remain in their own home. In 1941, all of the Jews of the town were moved into the newly formed ghetto of Niew Maisto. Rabbi Kohn and his family remained together in the ghetto until November of 1942, when the family was deported to Auschwitz.

Upon arrival in Auschwitz, the Kohn family was separated. His mother, Martha and his sister, Ida, were never heard from nor seen again. Murray Kohn and his father managed to remain together in the confusion of the arrival. However, a Nazi officer asked him his age and when he answered the officer motioned him to a line opposite to his father. Realizing the impending danger, his father took out a pocket watch and handed it to the officer without a word. The officer understood the gesture, took the watch and allowed young Murray to stay with his father. He believed they would not survive Auschwitz. He was wrong. Murray Kohn and his father did survive. They managed to remain alive and occasionally in contact for almost three years.

Shortly before the liberation of Auschwitz in January of 1945, Murray and his father were separated in the confusion of the forced evacuation. The Nazis took all ambulatory inmates on a forced march from Poland toward Germany. He was first taken to Buchenwald, a concentration camp in Germany. From there he was sent to Ohdruf and Krawienkel, subcamps of Buchenwald. He was marched back to the main camp, where he remained for a short time. Finally, he was placed in cattle cars and shipped to Theresienatadt (Terezin), a concentration camp/ghetto in Czechoslovakia near Prague, where he was liberated in May 1945.

After liberation Murray returned home to Poland to look for members of his family. Finding no survivors he went to a Displaced Persons camp in Germany where he located two cousins. Shortly after his arrival in Germany he met a man who told him that his father was alive and living in Italy. Murray Kohn went to Italy and was reunited with his father. They immigrated together to the United States in 1950.

Rabbi Kohn attended Brooklyn College where he received his bachelors' degree. He continued his education at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York receiving a Doctorate of Divinity. He earned a second doctoral degree in Jewish Literature from the Peoples University of Herzeliah.

In 1966, after many years as an educational leader and congregational rabbi, Dr. Kohn and his family moved to Vineland, NJ, where he still lives with his wife, Beverly. They are blessed with two daughters, Martha and Sara and two wonderful grandchildren. Rabbi Kohn served as Rabbi of Temple Beth Israel until 1997.

Rabbi Kohn has authored numerous articles, essays, and books in English and Hebrew. His book, The Voice of My Blood Cries Out ; The Holocaust Reflected in Hebrew Poetry was published in the United States in 1979.

In 1980, Rabbi Kohn began to teach the first course in Holocaust studies at the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey. Today he continues to teach Holocaust courses at the undergraduate and graduate level.

Rabbi Kohn's presence offered the participants of the 2001 Lest We Forget ®Study Seminar the unique opportunity to view the various sites and memorials through the eyes and memory of one who survived the watershed event that was the Holocaust. Sharing his experiences, knowledge, and wisdom in such locations as his hometown of Ciechanow, at Auschwitz, and in Theresienstadt (Terezin) indelibly etched the encounter into the memory of each participant.


Close Window