Dr. med.
Herbert Kahn
1894 - 1978

Herbert Kahn was born on February 16 in Karlsruhe, the son of merchant Albert Kahn and Amalie Kahn, née Hirschler. The family professed the Jewish faith.

Documentation on Kahn`s birth certificate from May 12, 1939 indicates that Kahn adopted Israel as his second first name in accordance with the decree of August 17, 1938. Under this documentation, an addition from March 28, 1947 demonstrates that the note was deleted on the basis of the decree of November 15, 1945.

Little information exists regarding Herbert Kahn’s childhood and his school days. He served as a one-year volunteer in an infantry regiment from October 1, 1912 until April 1, 1913. During World War I, he was a medical sergeant, was wounded in the elbow, and transferred to the reserve hospital in Pforzheim. He was granted leave to take the preliminary medical examination on February 27, 1917.

He received his medical license in 1920. Kahn`s doctoral thesis from 1921, “Investigations into the phosphoric acid content of the heart muscle in humans and animals,” is listed in the register of medical dissertations at the University of Frankfurt.

Education and place to work

Herbert Kahn received his training in internal medicine from Leopold Lichtwitz at the Medical Clinic of the General Hospital in Hamburg Altona. As medical director since 1916, Leopold Lichtwitz had played a decisive role in modernizing and developing the hospital. As a metabolism researcher, he published a textbook on clinical chemistry and a handbook on normal and pathological physiology. He was a member of the board of the German Society for Internal Medicine (DGIM) and designated chairman of the Wiesbaden Congress in 1933. After the National Socialists came to power, he was forced to resign because he was Jewish and fled to the USA via Switzerland in March 1933.

During his residency in Altona, Kahn researched and published on the identification and significance of albumin in a wide variety of diseases, especially about serodiagnostics of protein changes in cancer. His published findings established his reputation as an expert in the field of cancer detection.

Another study dealt with the duodenal probe and its use in the diagnosis of bile duct diseases. Among other things, he reports on a case in which the excretion of typhoid bacteria via the bile was detected.

After establishing himself as a specialist in internal medicine at Westendstr. 47 in Karlsruhe on September 17, 1924, he continued his research in collaboration with the Institute of Organic Chemistry at the Technical University in Karlsruhe and, together with Stefan Goldschmit, published the paper “Die Fraktionierung der wasserlöslichen Eiweißkörper des Blutserums” (The Fractionation of Water-Soluble Proteins in Blood Serum) in 1929.

Stefan Goldschmidt, a chemist, became associate professor and head of the Department of Organic Chemistry at the Chemical Institute of the Technical University of Karlsruhe in 1923. In 1933, student leaders in Karlsruhe who were loyal to the Nazis forced Stefan Goldschmidt, who was Jewish, to resign. As a front-line soldier in World War I, he was allowed to “temporarily resume his duties for the time being.” On December 31, 1935, he was finally dismissed or retired. He was able to continue his work in a “private laboratory” on the university campus. At the end of 1937, he was offered the position of head of a research laboratory at N.Y. Organon in Oss, Netherlands. With the permission of the Baden Ministry of Finance and Economics, he accepted the position. He moved to the Netherlands with his family in 1938 and did not return after his passport expired. In 1941, he was stripped of his German citizenship. After the war, he returned to Germany. He was appointed to the chair of the Institute of Organic Chemistry at the Technical University of Munich.

In a letter to the Karlsruhe Regional Court in 1959 as part of compensation proceedings, his lawyer wrote: “He [Herbert Kahn] was on the board of the Baden Society for Cancer Control. The German Emergency Aid Organization [research organization] provided him with the financial means to hire an assistant (chemist) at a chemical institute to conduct research on cancer under his supervision. Initially Dr. Chosi Strauss and then Dr. Littmann worked together with Dr. Kahn. When these assistants were no longer allowed to work at the technical university in 1933 because of their racial affiliation, the plaintiff was, because of the importance of this research work, nevertheless provided with a technician…. In 1933, the plaintiff gave two lectures at the international congress on cancer control in Madrid, one on serum diagnosis and the other on the deposition of radioactive bismuth in malignant tumors… He was therefore a specialist and internationally renowned for cancer treatment.

Following 1933

In addition to losing his health insurance accreditation to practice medicine in 1933, Herbert Kahn’s private practice was hit just as hard, as the majority of his patients had been civil servants who were now no longer allowed to be his patients. Only a few of his private patients had been Jewish. His income was significantly reduced from 1933 onwards, falling to around one-tenth of his previous income by 1938.

After his license to practice medicine was revoked on September 30, 1938, he closed his (private) practice and traveled in order to prepare his escape from Germany.

The issuance of the American visa was delayed. Herbert Kahn was summoned twice by the Gestapo. He was threatened with arrest if he did not leave the country immediately. Immediately after receiving the American visa on April 3, 1939, Herbert Kahn fled. In order to reach the ship, he flew from Zurich to London; Switzerland had allowed him to transit the country on the basis of his American visa. He had to abandon his original plan to flee via France and sail from Bologne because he did not have a transit visa for France. He had to borrow the money for the journey from Swiss relatives and friends, as he was not allowed to take any money out of the country.  Kahn left Europe on April 7, 1939, on the SS Washington from Southampton and arrived in New York on April 15, 1939. From there, he traveled on to his sister in Indianapolis. Fr(i)eda Haas, born in 1904, had already fled to the US with her husband Alexander and son Werner in November 1938.

Kahn initially worked as a research associate in biochemistry at the University of Chicago, later in a clinic, and from 1948 in his own medical practice in Chicago. In addition to his work at the clinic and later in his practice, he continued his research in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Chicago’s Institute of Biochemistry and the Department of Clinical Science. In 1961, he published a major paper on therapy with radioactive bismuth (Therapeutic use of radioactive bismuth isotopes in malignancies). He became a US citizen on December 9, 1943.

Debora Monheit, née Rosenberger, was born in Poland in 1904 and emigrated to the USA in late 1936/early 1937. She became an American citizen on January 28, 1942. Herbert Kahn and Debora Monheit married on November 27, 1942. The couple did not have any children

He and his wife spent the last period of their lives in San Diego, California. At the age of 84 years, Dr. Herbet Kahn died on April 15, 1878 in San Diego. His wife Debora died on November 18, 1986.