A few days ago I got the following email from Ashwin Maini, a close relative of Henryka, which sheds some more light on her. I’m glad to post it as is (with Ashwin permission of course)
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Dear David Carmel
I am writing to you because I am the close relative of Henryka Cohn whose comments are quoted by you (as provided to you by Raymond Coffer) in your Blog post “Who are you, Henryka Cohn?“.
Henryka Cohn was my great-aunt (my grandfather’s sister).
I enjoyed your article and am touched that you had hoped that there might somehow be a familial connection, purely because of the surname. However, I need gently just to let you know that you are quite correct in your conclusion in the article. There is absolutely no connection whatsoever between your Cohn family and ours!
Henryka’s father and Richard Gerstl’s father knew each other in Vienna. Henryka Cohn’s father (my great-grandfather) Hugo Cohn was actually from a small village in Prussian Upper Silesia called Schoffschuetz in the Kreis Rosenberg administrative district. The Cohn family were not from Austrian Galicia (Galizien). Rather, Hugo’s wife’s family (the Uiberalls) were from there. Henryka’s parents lived there in the early years of their marriage before moving to Vienna. That is why Henryka happened to have been born in Rzeszow in Austrian Galicia.
I have been researching our Cohn family for many decades, so I have a huge amount of detailed information about our antecedents. Furthermore, my 89 year-old mother is still alive and often met her aunt Henryka, both in Vienna and London.
Perhaps you could please add a footnote to your Blog post, updating your article with these factual points?
With very best wishes.
Ashwin Maini
David Carmel Blog 