Margarete Zimmermann married the doctor Fritz Kahl in the mid-1920s. The couple and their three sons lived with Fritz Kahl’s parents in a large parish house in Frankfurt am Main.
In 1938 the family moved into a building in Frankfurt’s Westend neighborhood, where the medical practice was also located. Numerous Jewish families still lived nearby. As persecution increased, Margarete Kahl became a figure of trust for persecuted Jewish neighbors and acquaintances.
At the end of 1942, the Jewish patient Eva Müller asked Dr. Kahl for help for her fiancé Robert Eisenstädt. Margarete Kahl was willing to take him in. At the start of 1943, she helped prepare the young couple’s escape; they reached Switzerland in February. In March 1943, she gave Eva Müller’s sister Berta shelter in her home for several weeks. After a while, her husband obtained forged identity papers, with which Berta Müller escaped to Vienna.
The Israeli Holocaust memorial center Yad Vashem honored Margarete Kahl posthumously as Righteous Among the Nations in 2006.
Margarete Kahl, around 1920. Source: Privatbesitz/Private
The Kahl family’s building, Blanchardstraße 22, Frankfurt am Main, around 1939. Source: Privatbesitz/Private
Margarete and Dr. Fritz Kahl with their sons Georg (born 1928), Gerhard (born 1933), and Eugen (born 1927) (left to right), Frankfurt am Main, around 1947. Source: Privatbesitz/Private
