From Woody's Couch

Arno Gustav Cronheim, a professor of mathematics at Ohio State University, dedicated his professional life to the study of the foundations of geometry.

Cronheim was born on 28 August 1922 in Berlin, Germany, to his father, Fritz Cronheim, and his mother, Minna Lewinski. Married two years before Arno’s arrival, Minna and Fritz lived in Berlin—the same home Arno was born in—until September 1933. The small, three-person family moved to an apartment in Karlshorst.

Fritz had studied pharmacy at the Fredrich Wilhelm University in Berlin, and had maintained this job up until 1939, when the Third Reich regime deemed it illegal for Jewish pharmacists to practice, therefore revoking his license. The Nazi regime then forced Fritz to pay around $11,500 as property tax. According to his Stolperstein entry, Fritz was forced into hard labor by the Nazi regime 1940.

It was by February 1943 that Arno never saw his father or mother again. Fritz, Minna, and Arno were deported to Auschwitz in March that year, where Minna was likely murdered by Nazi officers immediately upon arrival.

Fritz was taken to Buna-Monowitz concentration camp in March 1943, his final resting place, merely weeks after his initial kidnapping by SS officers. After losing his only family, Arno was forcefully sent to camps Krakow-Plaszow, Ravensbruck, and Sachsenhausen, in addition to Auschwitz. He had his parents formally declared dead in 1947.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After reaching freedom from the death camps, Arno studied at Humboldt University, and graduated in 1951 from Free University in West Germany. Arno studied mathematics under known Nazi Helmut Hasse, all while Cronheim still identified as a Jewish man.

Arno Cronheim moved to the United States in 1951, where he studied for his doctorate at the University of Illinois and graduated din 1954; he then began teaching at Ohio State, a career spanning 27 years. While at Ohio State, Arno protested against oppression against marginalized students and staff during the 1960s. While in Columbus, his family would host and house international students.

By 1957, Arno married his wife, Harriet Sachs. In total, they raised two sons with one named after his father. Philip Fritz graduated from Ohio State in the 1980s.

Arno Cronheim passed away at age 82 in 2005 and was preceded in death by his parents, his wife, and his first son. Arno practiced Judaism his entire life.

Today (27 January 2023) is honored as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. In a world where certain politics run alongside culture wars against marginalized groups, it is more important now than ever to remember those who were killed at the hands of a prejudiced majority. I hope Arno’s, Fritz’s, and Minna’s stories can live on in the collective memory of those who carry the stories of the Shoah. We each have a responsibility to always remember.

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For Fritz Cronheim’s entry on the Stolpersteine in Berlin, click here.

For Minna Lewinski Cronheim’s entry on the Stolpersteine in Berlin, click here.

To access Arno Cronheim’s oral history interview by the USC Shoah Foundation Institute, click here.

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References

Arno Cronheim. “The Columbus Dispatch.” Obituary. https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/dispatch/name/arno-cronheim-obituary?id=28956186.

Chaker, Julia. “Fritz Cronheim.” Stolpersteine in Berlin. https://www.stolpersteine-berlin.de/de/waldowallee/37/fritz-cronheim.

Chaker, Julia. “Minna Cronheim geb. Lewinski.” Stolpersteine in Berlin. https://www.stolpersteine-berlin.de/de/waldowallee/37/minna-cronheim.

The Ohio State University Archives. “Cronheim, Arno.” Biographical file collection.