Harry Katz was born March 4, 1933 in Berlin, Germany to Julius and Frieda Katz. Harry was the youngest of four children (Hans, Horst, Ilse, and Harry). After Kristallnacht, Harry’s father started looking for a way to get the family out of Germany.

The family had to split up. Hans was to go to Palestine; Horst was to go on a Kindertransport to England; and the rest of the family was to go to Shanghai.

In April 1939, Julius, Frieda, Ilse, and Harry started making their way to Shanghai. Horst, not wanting to go on the Kindertransport, somehow managed at the age of 13 to get his documents changed, and followed his family to Shanghai.

Meanwhile, Hans started his journey to Palestine in Cologne, where he was apprehended by the Gestapo and sent back to Berlin. The family received some correspondence from Hans, before all communication stopped. The family found out later that Hans was murdered in Auschwitz.

The family spent the remainder of the war in Shanghai. Julius was diagnosed with prostate cancer and died in 1946. In 1947, Horst was old enough to declare himself a stateless German and left for the United States on his own; he settled in Chicago. A couple years later Harry, his mother, and sister Ilse, finally were able to follow to the United States; they landed in San Francisco on May 14, 1949 and eventually made their way to Chicago.

You can read Harry’s full story in the article below, entitled, A Survivor’s Luck: Reflections on Berlin and Shanghai, written by Professor Kevin Ostoyich.

 

 

Left: Harry in his Chicago Cubs hat (Harry was a lifetime Cubs fan!), August 16, 2017.

 

 

 

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