Gerhard Hahn - German Refugee
By Peter Roberts
In the churchyard of St Trillo, Rhos on Sea near to the resting place of Commander Lowe of the Titanic, is the grave of Gerhard Hahn MD. What was a German sounding person doing buried in a Welsh churchyard in the middle of a war with his native country? There was no indication that he had been a military man.
Further investigation revealed that Dr Hahn was born on the 12th December 1878 in Breslau. He studied medicine in Heidelburg and Breslau and became Assistant at the University clinic in Breslau.
In the Great War of 1914-18, he was a medical Captain in a regiment of field artillery and was awarded an Iron Cross. He married Margrete (Grete) and had a daughter and two sons.
After the war he returned to his medical field as a skin disease specialist.
At the coming of Hitler and the rise of Nazism his troubles started. Although serving on the same side as Hitler, Hahn was Jewish and lost his permit to practise along with other Jewish doctors. This was October 1938. The following November he was imprisoned in Buchenwald concentration camp. He was released and managed to reach England in March 1939.
Records show that he was interned as a male enemy alien in June 1940 and released in August 1940, he was then living in Northampton.
When he moved to Rhos on Sea is not recorded but he and his wife lived in Rhos Road until his death in February 1942. His daughter was a nurse in Llandudno. Of his sons, one moved to Canada and the other to Switzerland.
Whilst in Rhos he gave talks about his experience in Buchenwald and taught Biology with the WEA. (Workers Educational Association.)
It is said that he died of a broken heart, having had to flee his country.
Most of this information came via Llandudno War Museum and Conwy Archives.
Peter Roberts.