Berthold Benjamin Briefwechsler

“Briefwechsler reported sick on 19. 3. 1945, complaining of severe body pains, stomach cramps, and bloody diarrhea. [...] Despite fastidious care and treat­ ment, his condition deteriorated rapidly and through continually increasing cardiac insufficiency finally led to his demise.” (Buchenwald concentration camp doctor to the commandant’s office, Weimar/Buchenwald, 27. 3. 1945) Berthold Benjamin Briefwechsler was born in Vienna on 10 November 1903 to Elieser Leiser and Chane, née Horowitz. His parents had moved to the capital from Brody (Galicia) in 1898. Berthold had four older siblings: Bertha Blime, Sofie Serka, Simon, and Leopold Leibisch. In 1927, he got married in Vienna to Eugenie, née Weber, and in August 1932 their daughter Kitty was born, also in Vienna. The family presumably moved to St. Pölten shortly thereafter, where Berthold built up a livelihood as a dental technician. However, his income was probably modest, as he was not required to submit an asset declaration after the National Socialists came to power. On 31 May 1938, the family’s lease for the apartment including the dental practice in Klostergasse 29 was terminated. Since Berthold Briefwechsler, as he wrote, was unable to find an apartment “despite queries with Jewish landlords,” he requested help from the welfare department of the Jewish community organization in St. Pölten in his search for accommodation. The little family including Berthold’s brother Simon and his wife Paula were finally housed in the cantor’s building of the synagogue in Lederergasse 12. It is unknown when Berthold Briefwechsler entered into a relationship with Camilla Frank from Viehofen, nor whether he officially divorced Eugenie. In any event, Eugenie and Kitty moved to Vienna without him following a request for assistance submitted by the Jewish community organization in St. Pölten to their colleagues in the Vienna Jewish community organization on 29 September 1938: “Her husband recently emigrated to Belgium and left his wife and their 6-year-old girl behind penniless.” Mother and daughter managed to flee to the United Kingdom and in 1948 moved on to Australia. Berthold and Camilla fled together via Belgium to France. Either they got mar- ried on the way or at least Camilla adopted his surname. Following the German occupation of France in June 1940, this country of refuge became a trap for them and the other 3,500 Austrian Jews who had fled there: The couple was arrested in Colleignes/Bourran, interned in the Casseneuil prison camp (Département Lot-et-Garonne, 114 km northwest of Toulouse), and on 9 September 1942 were deported from Drancy to Auschwitz. Camilla only survived until 20 October 1942. A Stone of Remembrance was placed at her last address at Johannesplatz 8–10 in Viehofen in 2022. Her husband was taken to Groß-Rosen on 11 February 1945 and then driven further to Buchenwald, arriving on 16 February. Three days later, he reported to the infirmary with severe pains and died on 26 March from “cardiac insufficiency in conjunction with infectious gastroenteritis.” The Nazi’s politics of murder hit the Briefwechsler family with full force. Bert- hold’s mother Chane was deported to Riga on 6 February 1942 and murdered there at an unknown time. His sister-in-law, Paula Bila, née Blumenthal, the wife of his brother Simon, was murdered together with her son Walter in Sobibor. A Stone of Remembrance was placed for the two at Kremser Landstraße 57 in 2019. Berthold’s brother Leopold was also caught by the persecutors and he was deported from Mechelen (Belgium) to Auschwitz in 1943. His sister Sofie was deported together with her husband Mechel Aron from Vienna to Izbica on 15 June 1942 and murdered. The two other siblings, Simon and Bertha Blime, man- aged to escape. In 1961, Simon submitted a Page of Testimony for Berthold to Yad Vashem, but was unable at the time to indicate either the time or place of death.