Fritz Cahen-Brach

Fritz Cahen-Brach was a Frankfurt-born paediatrician whose life connected medicine, sport, war, persecution and emigration. His father, Dr Eugen Cahen-Brach, directed a children’s hospital. He studied medicine in Frankfurt, Göttingen and Munich before serving as a gunner and medic during World War I. Fritz opened his Frankfurt paediatric practice in 1924. At Eintracht Frankfurt, he played tennis, joined the club community and led its boxing department from 1932. The nickname Boxerfürst marked his prominent sporting role. Nazi persecution banned Jewish participation in organised sport, initially revoked his medical licence and undermined his practice. Fritz and Käthe left Germany for the United States in 1938. They reached Los Angeles in early 1939, where Fritz retrained, worked at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital and practised medicine. He later practised in Burbank as Fred C. Brock. Their son Steven was born in 1943, while Fritz’s parents and other relatives were killed during the Holocaust. Fritz died in 1989, and Käthe died in 1994. Frankfurt Stolpersteine commemorate their lives and the Nazi regime’s impact on their family.