Naomi Laqueur

Richard Koch (September 3, 1882–July 30, 1949) was born to Fritz Koch and Auguste (born Epstein) in Frankfurt. His siblings include Alfred (1893-1918), Emma, and Hedda. After medical studies in Munich, Lausanne, Heidelberg, and Berlin, he served in a reserve military hospital during World War One. He married Maria Rosenthal in 1914. In Frankfurt, he had a successful career as a doctor, a professor of medicine and medical history at the Goethe University, and as the medical editor of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . His areas of medical interest included infectious disease, history of medicine, and balneology. In 1933, with the Nazis' ascent to power, Koch was removed from his university post and his medical practice was boycotted. In 1936, he left Germany, first for Brussels and, after obtaining Soviet citizenship, for Moscow. In 1937, he was assigned to a medical post in Essentuki, in the Caucasus. With the exception of a year during the war when he was evacuated to Tsqaltubo, Georgia, Koch remained in Essentuki until his death in 1949. Maria Koch remained in Essentuki until her death in 1973.

Koch had five children, all born in Frankfurt: Naomi Laqueur (1920-1995 ; born Barbara Koch; married to Walter Laqueur ), Helen Elder (born Hanna, married to Robert Elder ), Eva (Chava) Weiss, Gertrude Koch, and Friedrich Koch . All left Germany between 1936 and 1938. Gertrude and Friedrich joined their parents in Essentuki, while Naomi and Eva left for Palestine and Helen went to the United States. With the exception of Naomi, who after 1955 lived in England with stints in Israel and the United States, all of the children settled in the countries to which they fled.

From the guide to the Richard Koch Family Collection, 1890s-1993, bulk 1933-1970, (Leo Baeck Institute)