Berthold Kahn was born on January 7, 1888 in Bischofsheim in the house at Darmstädter Straße 10a/corner of Spelzengasse. He was the fourth child of the butcher Heimann Kahn and his wife Rosa, née Dornberg. He had six siblings, the sisters Bertha, Emma, Rebecka and Dina and the two younger brothers Marx and Julius. His grandfather was the “Protected Jew”, local citizen and butcher Moses Kahn, who had built Bertholds’ birth house. 

Heimann Kahn ran the first and oldest butcher's shop in the village. The Kahn family was well-known, respected and popular.

Berthold attended Bischofsheim elementary school, then learned the butcher's trade from his father and worked in his parents' business. 

On June 1st, 1920, he married Selma Lehmann from Schaafheim, the daughter of the merchant Moses Lehmann and his wife Karoline Frank. The couple had three daughters. Karoline Hilde was born on November 15, 1920 in Bischofsheim, Ilse Brendel on December 25, 1922 also in Bischofsheim and Rosel on March 20, 1932 in Mainz. 

In 1930, he took over the business and house from his mother.

Berthold Kahn was one of the most prominent Jews in Bischofsheim, his business developed very well and his customers were mainly working-class households. With the transfer of power to the National Socialists, he was targeted by the local Nazis. The boycott of Jews on April 1, 1933 was the first drastic measure taken against him. Two SA men in uniform stood in front of the store and tried to prevent customers from entering. On the opposite side of the street, a man stood with a camera and took pictures, thereby intensifying the action. 

After the boycott, the butcher's shop did not do so well as many customers were intimidated and afraid. Nevertheless, many Bischofsheim farmers continued to sell him their cattle and the butcher's shop switched to telephone orders and delivery in the dark. The Nazis therefore planned further actions.

A year later, in August 1934, Berthold Kahn was arrested and taken to prison in Mainz, accused of selling spoiled ground meat. After two weeks, it turned out that the accusations were false and that the National Socialist local head Friedrich Eitel had directed the so-called "meat affair": Eitel had bribed two of Berthold Kahn's apprentices to mix maggots into the ground meat. The local pharmacist had heard about the measures and warned the family. Selma Kahn was able to observe the two apprentices in the act. The Nazi action, which was widely accompanied by leaflets, anti-Semitic slogans and banners, failed miserably and he was acquitted and released from prison. 

In August 1935, the local Nazis published an advertisement in the "Mainzer Anzeiger" entitled "Prangertafel" (pillory board), in which the names of the Bischofsheim farmers' leader Jakob Schilling XII and other local farmers who continued to use Berthold Kahn's cattle scales were mentioned. As a result, no one dared to shop in the butcher's shop.

In 1937, the family tried to emigrate to the USA. However, due to the strict entry rates and the long waiting times for a visa, this was not a suitable solution. In the same year, they decided to flee to Luxembourg and sold their butcher's shop and house to Ernst Bechthold from Seeheim/Bergstraße for far less than they were worth. 

They bought a two-family house in the small village of Soleuvre near Esch-sur-Alzette. As the granting of the visa was delayed, the family had to move temporarily to Mainz in Schulstrasse to the house of the wine merchant Liebenstein. 

During the riots of the Reichspogromnacht on November 9, 1938 Berthold Kahn was arrested and interned in the Buchenwald concentration camp. He returned after 16 days in prison. Scarred by the psychological strain, he was barely recognizable. The terrible memories haunted him for the rest of his life. Since that time, he has never been able to be happy and carefree again.

On December 21, 1938, the family moved to Soleuvre.  There he was not allowed to run a butcher's shop only to work in agriculture. The family made a living by selling chickens, rabbits, milk and eggs. The two daughters Hilde and Ilse were able to flee to England.

However, their stay in Luxembourg did not last long. After the invasion of German troops on May 10, 1940, the couple had to flee to France with their daughter Rosel. On the way to Metz, Bertold Kahn was separated from his wife and daughter. Internment in several camps followed. They were only reunited in a camp near Nimes in the south of France, but were deported to the Les Milles camp, an abandoned brick factory in Aix-en-Provence, on August 25, 1940. 

In the winter of 1940/41, Berthold Kahn was sent to the Gurs concentration camp in the Pyrenees for four months. At the beginning of 1942, he was imprisoned in a labor camp in a naval shipyard near Marseille. On April 4, 1942, the French Vichy government agreed to the deportation of Jews from France and rumors of an imminent action prompted him to flee the camp. The family initially lived illegally in a widow's apartment in Aix-en-Provence and from January 1943 until the liberation by the Allies in August 1944 with various farmer families in Provence.

Luxembourg was also liberated in September 1944 and on May 7, 1945, one day before the German surrender, Berthold Kahn, his wife Selma and their daughter Rosel returned to their home in Soleuvre. 

In 1951, Berthold Kahn visited his home in Bischofsheim for the last time. It was impossible for him to return.

After the visas were granted, the family was able to move to the USA in January 1952. 

Berthold Kahn died on January 17, 1981 in Miami, Florida/USA, at the age of 93. He is buried in the Beth Israel Lower Cemetery in Rotterdam, New York.

(Bernd Schiffler)