Koehler Max & Clara

Köhler, Max Köhler, Clara Max Köhler was the owner of a small metal-works factory in Berlin. Before the war, both he and his wife, Clara, had been patients of the Jewish Dr. Arthur Arndt. On January 9, 1943, when the Jews were being deported from Berlin, Köhler employed the Jewish doctor’s son Erich at his factory as a mechanic journeyman. He also allowed him to sleep there at night. Both Köhler’s wife and son Hans knew about the arrangement; the other employees did not. They were told that Arndt had been exempted from the draft and so could work at a time when hardly any young men were seen in civilian life anymore. A few months later, Erich’s girlfriend, Ellen Lewinski, who had lost her own hiding place, showed up and was also allowed to move in. She had, however, to vacate the premises every morning so as not to arouse suspicion. The Köhlers paid Erich for his work, and, in addition, provided him and his girlfriend with food. By the end of 1943, Köhler also employed another young Jew, Bruno Gumpel, a friend of Arndt’s who had been an apprentice with him at the Jewish trade school in Berlin from April 1939 to April 1941. He, too, was paid for his work, and the same story about his deferment from the army was circulated. Bruno, however, was able to sleep somewhere else, until his place was bombed out. He then moved into the factory, too. During the air raids, both boys went downstairs into the shelter. Köhler had let it be known that the two young men were sleeping in his factory as air-raid wardens. In December 1944, the mother of Arndt’s girlfriend, Charlotte Lewinski, joined the group in the factory. A few months later Arndt’s mother and sister, who had lost their hiding place, were also permitted to stay there. In order to conceal the presence of the new guests, Köhler and his two Jewish assistants fixed up a small storage room with bunk beds inside the factory. The room had no windows, and Arndt’s mother and sister would spend the day there in semi-darkness and in silence to avoid being noticed by the other workers in the factory. This went on until the entry of the Russians on April 26, 1945. Some 14 years later, Hans Köhler emigrated to the United States, were he was welcomed by the Arndts. He returned to Berlin after his retirement and died there in March 1979. On October 13, 1988, Yad Vashem recognized Max and Clara Köhler as Righteous Among the Nations.