Alten Family Collection

Kurt Walter Aron (1907-1969) was born in Berlin to Dr. Emil Aron (1864-1932) and Selma Aron (née Cohn, 1870-1964). In 1939, he changed his surname from Aron to Alten. In the 1940s, his mother also changed her last name, to Aron-Alten.

Dr. Emil Aron, Kurt's father, was a medical doctor and Sanitätsrat at the Jewish Hospital in Berlin for more than 25 years. During World War One, he served the German army, although he was over 50 years old. Kurt's mother Selma was the daughter of Ephraim Cohn, a successful Berlin merchant. Both the Cohn and the Aron families were assimilated, well-educated, and financially successful.

In 1928, Alten passed the legal trainee exam in Berlin. He received his law degree in 1930 from the University of Heidelberg, and in December 1932 was hired as a Gerichtsassessor in Berlin. In April 1933, he was fired because he was Jewish. Alten immigrated to the United States via Cuba in 1936, and was naturalized in 1937. He settled in New York, and in 1945 married Helga Nord (1916- ). Alten worked as an accountant for the remainder of his professional career, and in 1969 died in Lisbon, Portugal while traveling.

In October 1941, Selma Aron-Alten managed to escape Germany via Portugal and Cuba. She arrived in the United States in 1942, where she joined her son in New York. However, despite Kurt's best efforts, his sister, Elli Loewenthal (1905-1943), was unable to emigrate. She was deported from Berlin to Auschwitz on the 26th Ost Transport (January 12, 1943), together with her husband, Otto Loewenthal (1899-1943), and her children, Renate (1931-1943) and Eddie-Peter (1938-1943).