Fritz Feiler grew up in Leopoldstadt, the 2nd district of Vienna which was the Jewish neighbourhood of the city. He was the only child of his parents Naftali and Ruchla Feiler. The family probably lived in very modest circumstances. The Vienna Address Book of 1938 registered the profession of the father as “pedlar”.
Thanks to the joint efforts of the committee Voor Het Joodsche Kind van Duitschland (For the Jewish Child from Germany) in Antwerp, the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Wien (Jewish Community of Vienna) and the Reichsvertretung der Juden in Deutschland (Reich Representation of the Jews in Germany), a group of Viennese children, including five-year-old Fritz Feiler, was able to enter Belgium via Cologne on 23 February 1939.
Naftali Feiler’s brother, Jacob Leon Feiler, lived in Antwerp. He earned his living as a diamond cutter and lived with his wife Eidel and their daughter Cecilie in 206 Provinciestraat, in the middle of the Jewish quarter of the city.
At first, Fritz was accommodated in 45 Avenue Margrave in Antwerp. The building was a former diamond cutting shop and was given to the committee in Antwerp by Isidor Lipschutz as the first place to stay for German Kindertransport children. Immediately after the November pogrom in Germany, the diamond trader committed himself to bring German children to safety in Belgium. Not long after this, Fritz Feiler moved in with his uncle Jacob Feiler’s family in 206 Provinciestraat.
In August 1942, there were three raids which terrified the Jews living in Antwerp. Many families, who were often separated from each other, tried to go into hiding, the Feilers probably among them.
Today, 23 February 1939, we, Pierre L. and Gustave N., non-commissioned officers of the Lontzen gendarmerie, confirm that we checked a group of 56 Israelite children coming from Cologne and then let them pass. This group, which was accompanied by two members of the Red Cross, arrived at 5.50 pm on train no. 146. All these children were forwarded to Antwerp and placed in the care of the Comité pour la Protection des enfants israelites en Belgique (Committee for the Protection of Jewish Children in Belgium).
Extract from a document dated 23 February 1939 from the border police at Herbesthal station. © Belgian State Archives
Fritz Feiler’s arrival at the Antwerp Joods Weeshuis (Jewish Orphanage of Antwerp) in the Lange Leemstraat is documented for 7 September 1942. The orphanage was under the control of the compulsory Jewish organisation Vereeniging van Joden in België/Association des Juifs en Belgique (Association of Jews in Belgium, AJB).
Only four days later, on the Jewish New Year, the Germans again started arresting foreign Jews in Antwerp. This raid was not limited to private households as before but was also extended to AJB institutions.
After the war, Rosi Rothschild, then head of the orphanage, could recollect the names of 23 children aged between three and eleven who were arrested by the Germans during the raid at the orphanage. One of these children was Fritz Feiler. 20 of them were registered by the Kazerne Dossin (Dossin Barracks) on 9 October 1942 for the thirteenth transport to Auschwitz, Fritz receiving the number 667. The train left Mechelen on 10 October 1942 and reached its destination two days later. Due to his age, the nine-year-old Fritz was presumably murdered immediately in the gas chamber.
By this time, his parents were no longer alive. On 23 November 1941, the Germans had deported Naftali and Ruchla Feiler from Vienna to Kovno, where they were murdered on 29 November 1941. AP
Portrait of Fritz Feiler: © Belgian State Archives