Jonas Tiefenbrunner (1914-1962), a native of Wiesbaden, and his wife Ruth (1911-?), née Feldheim, provided a new home in Belgium for many Kindertransport children from Germany.
Jonas Tiefenbrunner grew up in Wiesbaden with eight siblings in a Jewish family originally from Poland. He became active in the Jewish orthodox Jewish orthodox youth organization Esra at an early age. Little is known about his life in Germany.
In 1938 in Frankfurt, he met Ruth Feldheim, who came from Fulda. The following July, he emigrated to Belgium for the first time from Cologne, where he had been living at that time. After one month he had to leave the country again, as he only had a limited residence permit. At the end of October 1938, his father and brother Moritz were deported during the so-called Polenaktion (the forced expulsion of Jews who were Polish citizens). His mother and three siblings left for Poland in August 1939. All but Moritz were murdered.
Jonas Tiefenbrunner escaped to Belgium after the November pogrom in December 1938. Since July 1938, Ruth Feldheim had also been living there and worked as a cook at the Antwerp Joods Weeshuis (Jewish Orphanage of Antwerp). Previously, she had been employed for a year at the Jewish Orphanage in Dinslaken. The couple married in May 1940. Two daughters, Jeannette and Judith, were born in December 1942 and May 1945.
From June 1939 Jonas Tiefenbrunner ran the children’s home Villa Jeanette in Heide, founded by the Comité d‘Assistance aux Enfants Juifs Réfugiés (Assistance Committee to Jewish Refugee Children, CAEJR) for Jewish orthodox boys. The children’s home was exclusively for Kindertransport children. After the closure of the home as a result of the German invasion in May 1940, he succeeded in placing the children in a house at 64 Generaal-Drubbel Straat in Berchem, a district of Antwerp, by the end of June 1940. The home was financially supported by donations.
In May 1941, Jonas Tiefenbrunner contacted the CAEJR board members living in New York. He asked them to try to get the 22 Kindertransport children living with him into the USA. He and his wife wanted to accompany the children. The USA’s entry into the war in December 1941 ruined their hopes of leaving the country.
In June 1941, the orphanage was located at 5 Rue de la Consolation in Schaerbeek, and in September 1941 it moved to 34 Rue des Patriotes in Brussels. From the end of 1941, it was under the administration of the AJB, the compulsory Jewish association in Belgium, and was thus controlled by the Germans.
Shortly before the liberation of Belgium in the summer of 1944, the Tiefenbrunners were informed that the children were to be deported. With the help of the Belgian resistance, they managed to get the children and themselves to safety. After the end of the war, Jonas and Ruth Tiefenbrunner remained in Belgium and ran a home for Jewish orphans in Mariaburg. AP