Leo Bretholz
Leo Bretholz | |
---|---|
Born | |
Died | March 8, 2014 | (aged 93)
Spouse | Florine Cohen (m. 1952–2009; her death) |
Children | Three |
Leo Bretholz (March 6, 1921 – March 8, 2014) was a
He escaped seven times during the Holocaust.
Life
Leo Bretholz was born in Vienna, Austria, on March 6, 1921. His father, Max Bretholz, was a Polish immigrant who worked as a tailor and died in 1930. His Mother, Dora (Fischmann) Bretholz, also Polish, was born in 1891 and worked as a seamstress. He had two younger sisters, Henny and Edith (Ditta).[2]
After the
On November 5, 1942, Bretholz was deported on convoy 42 with 1000 others headed for Auschwitz. With his friend Manfred Silberwasser he escaped through the window and leaped off the train.[1] Staying with two priests on subsequent nights, he and Manfred were given train tickets to Paris with a new set of false identification papers, this time under the name Marcel Dumont. Upon crossing into the Southern region (Vichy France), he was arrested again for abandoning his assigned residence. He spent nine months in prison, one month of which was in solitary confinement for having escaped for two days. He was released in September 1943, and was then sent to Septfonds labor camp for one month.
In October 1943, Leo Bretholz was taken with thirteen other men to the Toulouse train station en route to the Atlantic coast to build fortifications. At this layover, he spent hours to bend the bars, then climbed out of the train window and escaped into the city of Toulouse. In Toulouse his friend Manfred sent a third set of false papers, this time under the name Max Henri Lefevre. Bretholz joined the Jewish Resistance Group Compagnons De France, known as "La Sixieme", so he could travel freely throughout France. He was assigned to Limoges, a city in south-central France. On May 8, 1944, his hernia ruptured and he collapsed on a Limoges park bench and was sent by a passerby to a hospital, where he had surgery. After spending seventeen days in the hospital, he returned for his dressings to be changed. Finally, Bretholz rejoined the underground movement, and remained in Limoges until departing on a ship for New York on January 19, 1947.[3]
Together with his aunt and uncle he moved to
In 1968 he went into the retail book business. He lived in the Netherlands with his family for two years,[3] and co-wrote an autobiography, Leap into Darkness, with Michael Olesker. Leo Bretholz appeared in the documentary films, Survivors Among Us, [4] and See You Again Soon. [5]
Until his death in 2014, he lived in Pikesville, Maryland, and was a regular speaker at a range of venues, including the annual Holocaust Remembrance Project, and a number of schools.
Fight for SNCF Reparations
Prior to his death, Leo Bretholz fought for reparations from SNCF, the French rail company that transported Jews to Nazi concentration and death camps. When the class action lawsuit refused to be heard by the Supreme Court, the lower court ruling that the case was outside US jurisdiction stood and the case died. When his home state of Maryland proposed a high speed rail line, he testified in the state legislature against permitting SNCF to bid on the project.[2]
Bibliography
- Bretholz, Leo; ISBN 0385497059.
References
- ^ a b Shaver, Katherine (March 9, 2014). "Opposition to Maryland rail line bidder raises questions about accountability for Holocaust". The Washington Post. Retrieved March 9, 2014.
- ^ ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-02-12.
- ^ OCLC 722971331.
- )
- ^ "See You Soon Again (2011) - IMDb". IMDb.
External links
- Jewish Journal at the Wayback Machine (archived September 29, 2007)
- Holocaust Encyclopedia
- Hörspuren audio guide: Leo Bretholz talks about his childhood days in Vienna