Klara Caro

Klara Caro was born on January 6, 1886 as Klara Beermann in Berlin. About her childhood and youth in Berlin, Klara Caro herself has conveyed little. The few words she finds in her autobiography describe the parents to the nestling with three older brothers as little understanding, the living conditions as modest.

To her older brother Max, educated at the rabbinical seminary in Berlin, she owed the cornerstones of her education and her unwavering Zionist position. Through Max, the young Klara met other Jewish scholars and, it is assumed, her future husband Isidor Caro, to whom she became engaged in 1906 and whom she married in Berlin in 1909 when she was just 18. As a teenager, she was already involved in a Zionist women's association under Lina Wagner-Tauber.

Klara Caro's proactive attitude continued after she moved to Cologne with Isidor: the couple moved into an apartment at Ehrenfeldstraße 171. In addition to raising their children Hermann (*1915) and Ruth (ca. *1918), she founded the Cologne chapter of the Jewish Women's League, worked in the Israelite Women's League, and advocated for Jewish inmates as a chaplain at Klingelpütz Prison.

Klara Caro, who self-confidently perceived and was perceived as a young, energetic and educated wife of the Cologne rabbi, fought for women's suffrage within the Cologne community and gave lectures on Jewish life and culture at the adult education center.

According to her own account, Klara Caro worked as a social worker at Klingelpütz Prison from 1913 to 1938. After the transfer of power in 1933, it was transformed from a "progressive prison," according to Klara Caro in her memoirs, with primary rehabilitation goals into the central National Socialist execution site of the Rhineland.

As a result, her work focus shifted outward to the "Segenborn" house, an institution for released prisoners. She accompanied Jewish women during and after their imprisonment and extended this work to patients* in the psychiatric ward at the Lindenburg Hospital (Cologne University Hospital). She fulfilled these tasks for over two decades, until the National Socialists banned such activities on January 1, 1939.

Klara Caro was very active within the Jewish community. She campaigned for women's suffrage, which was approved by the Cologne church community in 1925, but blocked by the Prussian state. She made several conference trips through Europe, including one with Bertha Pappenheim to London, where she campaigned against modern slave labor. She lectured at the Volkshochschule in Cologne on topics including Jewish traditions in Cologne. Contrary to assimilation, Caro emphasized Jewish identity and tradition and thus aroused enthusiasm for Jewish values among many Jewish women.

After 1933, she helped numerous Jewish citizens of Cologne* prepare for migration. After the tightening of repressive measures against Jews, she supported her Jewish community members in surviving in the city and in building a national and international aid network. In 1934, the Jewish community honored the Caro couple on the occasion of their silver wedding anniversary and 25 years of pastoral service with a ceremony and a trip to Palestine. A year later, the couple made the trip, but they did not take advantage of this and other opportunities to leave the country for Cuba and Great Britain and returned to their community.

In 1941, the Caro family had to leave their apartment in Cologne-Ehrenfeld. Together with 13 other people, they were forced to share a small apartment in the back building of the synagogue on Roonstraße.

In 1942, the deportation of Cologne's Jews to the so-called Theresienstadt ghetto began. Together with her husband, Klara Caro volunteered to provide pastoral care for her parishioners in the ghetto. Klara Caro was deported from Cologne to Theresienstadt on June 16, 1942. There she helped organize cultural events such as theater performances and Jewish festivals. Klara Caro also initiated and was involved in the Women's International Zionist Organization. When her husband died of malnutrition in August 1943, she accompanied him at his deathbed, which was a very impressive experience for her.

Klara Caro, at the instigation of Leo Baeck, a member of the so-called Jewish Council of Elders of Theresienstadt, was taken along with 1,200 prisoners by transport to refugee camps in Switzerland (Les Avant Montreux, Engelberg) in February 1945. There she was elected by the refugees as their representative and so she stood up for their rights and took part in Zionist meetings in Lucerne and Zurich.

In various places in Switzerland she gave lectures on the life of the Jewish prisoners in Theresienstadt. Klara Caro turned down various offers to become active in Swiss refugee aid and emigrated to the USA.

After moving to New York, she reunited with friends who had also emigrated, who introduced her to the New York Theodor Herzl Society. In the Habonim Zionist community, she led the sisterhood for 12 years and was a valued member of the community.

In a nursing home she spent the last year of her life and also wrote her autobiography there. Klara Caro died at the age of 93 on September 27, 1979, in New York.