Uwe Köhler was born in the hospital attached to Landsberg Prison, where his mother was awaiting trial by an American war crimes tribunal. His father was an un-named German prisoner of war or one of her interrogators. His mother's husband, Karl-Otto Koch, had been executed by an SS firing squad, just two years prior. Uwe was removed almost immediately to a Bavarian foster home and it was in foster homes that he grew up, not knowing the identity of his parents. At age 8, in 1955, he happened to see his mother's name on his birth certificate and he stored it in his memory. Eleven years later he saw a headline, "No Pardon for Koch," in the Fränkische Landeszeitung in Ansbach, where he was in school. It dawned on him that she could be his mother, a fact he immediately confirmed with his state‐appointed guardian. At Christmas time in 1966 he went "with a creepy feeling" to the Bavarian prison where his mother was serving the life sentence imposed by the Bavarian State Court in 1950. They had what he described as a joyous reunion and he continued to visit her as often as the rules allowed (once a month) until she hanged herself on September 1, 1967, three weeks before her 61st birthday.
(Bio by Jay Lance)
Uwe Köhler was born in the hospital attached to Landsberg Prison, where his mother was awaiting trial by an American war crimes tribunal. His father was an un-named German prisoner of war or one of her interrogators. His mother's husband, Karl-Otto Koch, had been executed by an SS firing squad, just two years prior. Uwe was removed almost immediately to a Bavarian foster home and it was in foster homes that he grew up, not knowing the identity of his parents. At age 8, in 1955, he happened to see his mother's name on his birth certificate and he stored it in his memory. Eleven years later he saw a headline, "No Pardon for Koch," in the Fränkische Landeszeitung in Ansbach, where he was in school. It dawned on him that she could be his mother, a fact he immediately confirmed with his state‐appointed guardian. At Christmas time in 1966 he went "with a creepy feeling" to the Bavarian prison where his mother was serving the life sentence imposed by the Bavarian State Court in 1950. They had what he described as a joyous reunion and he continued to visit her as often as the rules allowed (once a month) until she hanged herself on September 1, 1967, three weeks before her 61st birthday.
(Bio by Jay Lance)
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