Searching for clues about Kirchheimers

A Germanwoman is calling on readers of The AJN to help her trace the descendants of a Jewish family her grandfather heroically helped to escape Nazi Germany – a family she believes settled in Sydney in the mid-1940s.

Lisa Koch (née Weber) from Stuttgart grew up captivated by the wartime story of her grandfather, Carl Weber, who was born in 1889.

“As a child I was fascinated – and still am – by the amazing story about my grandfather,” she said.

“I found his story so breathtaking, that I would like to find out the whereabouts of the descendants of the Kirchheimer family that he helped.”

The Kirchheimers originated from Heilbronn – a city in southern Germany near Stuttgart.

Unfortunately, Koch does not know the first names of any Kirchheimer family member.

According to Koch, Mr Kirchheimer and Weber were both managing directors of the Dresdner Bank in Heilbronn from around 1927, and became close friends.

Both families remained in contact, even after the Webers relocated to Leipzig for work in around 1931.

To ensure the Kirchheimer family’s survival, when war broke out, Weber organised their escape from Germany to Switzerland, via Lake Constance.

He arranged the escape of Kirchheimer’s wife and their child first, most likely in 1940, and then for Kirchheimer himself, in or by 1942.

By that time, Weber and his wife Elfriede had moved to his hometown of Lindau on Lake Constance, just across the border from Switzerland, giving him both the local knowledge and the opportunity to act.

The escape, Koch understands, was made in a furniture van.

Weber kept his courageous actions entirely secret from his own family at the time.

“Silence was obviously the best protection against prosecution,” Koch said, adding his family did not learn of the story until well after the war.

Once reunited in Switzerland, the Kirchheimer family emigrated first to Mandatory Palestine, and later to Sydney.

Koch recalled a touching detail from her childhood: that Kirchheimer sent an extraordinarily large bouquet of gladioli from Australia to Germany every year as a gift to Weber, right up until Weber’s death in 1963.

“As a child, I found it unbelievable,” she said, “and unfortunately, my knowledge about them ends there.”

She is hopeful that someone in Sydney, or elsewhere in Australia, may remember them, or know of any descendants.

“I would be very happy if anyone remembers the Kirchheimer family, and would like to get in touch with me,” she said.

If you can assist Lisa Koch with search for information, email her at lisa.stuttgart8@gmail.com