Dr. Hilda Cohen

Hilda Cohen was born in November 1928 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, into an observant Jewish family. Her parents were Hugo and Caroline Rosenthal née Schwabacher. She was the youngest of three children in a household that included her widowed grandmother. Her mother, who taught English and French, had grown up in Frankfurt, and her father worked as a paint merchant. The family maintained a frum home, kept kosher, and belonged to the Orthodox Breuer shul on Friedberger Anlage.

Cohen attended the Hirsch Schule, a Jewish primary school. Her memories of early childhood were of a comfortable, orderly life shaped by synagogue, family gatherings, and regular visits to relatives in Bad Homburg. Her paternal grandparents had long roots in Frankfurt, while her maternal grandmother came from Gelnhausen.

The stable atmosphere of her early years ended with the Nazi rise to power and particularly during Kristallnacht (November 1938), which she witnessed from her home window. She recalled seeing the flames of the burning synagogue and realising for the first time that Jewish life in Germany was in danger. Her father was later arrested and taken to a concentration camp, returning after a short imprisonment; she remembered his absence but little discussion of emigration at that time.

In early 1939, her elder sister, then sixteen, managed to emigrate to England as a domestic worker, assisted by the Eisemann family from Frankfurt who had already settled in London. Hilda’s own escape followed later that year via the Kindertransport. She departed from Frankfurt Station in July 1939, aged ten. Her parents and grandmother remained behind and were later deported from Frankfurt to Kovno (Kaunas), Lithuania, where they were murdered.

Cohen travelled by train and ship to Harwich, then on to Liverpool Street Station, London, where she was met by her sister and her sponsors. She was placed with a Jewish family in Wales, in Merthyr Tydfil, members of the Sherman family, who were bookmakers and pool agents. The family, treated her with kindness. She described them as generous and attentive to her religious needs.

She attended a local primary school in Merthyr, where she quickly adapted to English instruction, writing her diary in English from her first months in Britain. The Welsh community, she said, was friendly and welcoming. She passed the eleven-plus examination and moved to secondary school, though she found its standard poor. Throughout the war she remained in South Wales, maintaining contact with her sister, who married and later served as a house-parent for refugee children in Clonyn Castle, Ireland, under the auspices of Rabbi Schonfeld.

After the war, Cohen completed her education in Cardiff, where she trained and qualified as a medical doctor. She married Dr Cohen, also from the Welsh Jewish community, and they settled in Cardiff, raising two sons. Professionally, she practised medicine locally, while remaining active in communal and civic life. In 1962 she was elected councillor for the Gabalfa Ward and later became an alderman. Her public service was recognised nationally when she received an MBE.

She and her husband were members of Cardiff Synagogue and participated in Jewish communal organisations. She also contributed to the preservation of Welsh Jewish heritage, maintaining links with the Merthyr community and supporting its cultural restoration projects.

Cohen never returned to Frankfurt. She described making a deliberate decision with her sister not to revisit Germany. Cohen viewed her life as shaped by optimism, adaptability, and gratitude. She regarded her sister as a formative influence and emphasised moral integrity and humility as values inherited from her father. Reflecting in old age, she rejected resentment and focused on the future, identifying herself as “a cup-half-full person.” She expressed satisfaction with her family and career and pride in having contributed both to British civic life and to the Jewish community in Wales.

Key words: Cohen. Rosenthal. Schwabacher. Frankfurt am Main. Breuer shul. Hirsch Schule. Eisemann. Kindertransport. Wales, Merthyr Tydfil. Councillor and alderman Gabalfa Ward.