Franz Baruch

Franz Ralph Baruch was born in Berlin-Charlottenburg, the son of Robert Baruch (1895-1945) and Herta Merländer (1901-1944).^[1] Franz's parents were married in Dresden on 10 March 1923. He had a younger sister Mary Johanna (1928-unknown). Franz's father had been born in Temesvár, Hungary (now Timișoara, Romania).^[2] He studied chemistry in Dresden and became an engineer and director of a scrap trading company in Berlin. Herta Merländer, Franz's mother, was a daughter of Isidor Merländer, the owner of the firm Hirsch & Co for clothing and fur goods. He held the title of “Hoflieferanten” (court supplier) in Saxony. His shop was located at Prager Straße 6/8, Dresden's biggest shopping street.^[3]

In 1937, Robert Baruch left Berlin for Amsterdam, where he and Willy Cohn (1887-1970) set up Roba Metallurgische Handelsmaatschappij, a metals export and import business.^[4] His wife Herta and their two children Ralph and Mary stayed behind in Berlin, but in June 1937 they also managed to reach Amsterdam via Italy and France.^[3] According to his archive card in the Amsterdam population register, Franz came to the Netherlands via Yugoslavia.^[1] They first stayed at Hotel L'Europe in Nieuwe Doelenstraat for three months before finding a home at Apollolaan 187-II.^[5]

Franz went to the Amsterdam Lyceum,^[6] but because Jewish students and teachers were forbidden to attend regular schools as of 1 September 1941, he had to go to the Jewish Lyceum. He entered class 4B2, which also included Margot Frank.^[7] His younger sister Mary entered class 1L1, the parallel class to the one Anne Frank was in.^[8] Franz's card in the Jewish Council's card catalogue shows that he worked for the Estafettedienst. This was a department of the Jewish Council that performed all kinds of odd jobs, such as courier services. It consisted mainly of young people.^[9]

In May 1939, Isidor Merländer, Franz's grandfather, fled to Amsterdam.^[10] The business of his son-in-law's company was prospering. When Holland was occupied by the Germans in May 1940, the two companions transferred the company to a Dutchman as a precaution. An attempt to escape across the English Channel to Britain failed.^[3] However, through acquaintances, Franz's father managed to obtain exit papers to Hungary, to which the Baruch family fled in late August 1943.^[11]

In Hungary, they were arrested in October 1944 and deported to Auschwitz concentration camp. Herta died on 30 November 1944 at an unknown location in Eastern Europe, Robert Baruch died shortly after liberation on 31 May 1945 at Mauthausen concentration camp, in Austria.^[12] On 1 May 1945, Franz reportedly died of dysentery in Ebensee, a subcamp of Mauthausen.^[13] Only daughter Mary survived a forced labour camp near Breslau and returned to the Netherlands in 1945.^[3] She emigrated to São Paulo in Brazil in 1951.^[14] There, on 12 June 1951, she married Stefan Dirk Gert Cohn from Essen, Germany.^[15] Stefan was a former pupil of the Jewish Lyceum and the son of Willy Cohn, who, after the war took over the management of the company he had co-founded with Robert Baruch. In 1953, Mary returned with Stefan to the Netherlands, where they went to live in Bussum.  For more than 40 years, Stefan Cohn managed Roba Metals Ltd.^[16] In turn, his son Paul (1962) took over the reins in the 1990s.^[17]

Grandfather Isidor Merländer received a Sperre: a temporary exemption from deportation because of his position at the Jewish Council in the support department. But in June 1943, he was ordered to report to the Hollandsche Schouwburg and was put on transport to Westerbork on 20 June 1943.^[18] On 6 July 1943, shortly after his 71st birthday, Isidor Merländer was deported with 2,417 other Jews on the seventeenth transport to Sobibor extermination camp. There, Franz's grandfather was murdered immediately upon arrival on 9 July 1943. No one from this seventeenth transport to Sobibor managed to survive the camp.^[19]

Source personal data.^[1] Addresses: Apollolaan 187, Amsterdam (July 1937); Cloosterlaan 10, Heemstede (February 1938); Apollolaan 187-II, Amsterdam (September 1939); Grevelingenstraat 17-II (November 1942); Budapest.^[1]