Steine der Erinnerung

Camilla Briefwechsler

Camilla Briefwechsler, die Tochter von Karls Bruder Rudolf Frank und dessen Frau Elsa (geb. Frankl, gest. 1927), am 10. Mai 1910 in Viehofen geboren, arbeitete als Verkäuferin und war aktives Mitglied der jüdischen Jugend in St. Pölten. Nach einer kurzen Ehe mit Rudolf Eisner ging sie mit dem St. Pöltner Zahntechniker Berthold Benjamin Briefwechsler eine Beziehung ein. Miteinander flüchteten sie nach Frankreich, heirateten unterwegs, wurden in Colleges verhaftet, im Gefangenenlager Casseneuil (Département Lot-et-Garonne, 114 km nord-westlich von Toulouse) interniert und am 9. September 1942 von Drancy nach Auschwitz deportiert.

Camilla wurde dort am 20. Oktober 1942 ermordet, ihr Mann wurde am 11. Februar 1945 nach Gross-Rosen überstellt, wo sich seine Lebensspur verliert. Ihr Vater und ihre Geschwister überlebten die Shoah in Argentinien, Belgisch-Kongo, Bolivien und Palästina/Erez Israel.

Foto: Camilla Frank, verh. Briefwechsler (vorne links), Purimfest, Synagoge St. Pölten, ca. 1936 © Injoest

Karl Frank, his daughter Margarete, and his niece Camilla Briefwechsler

“Half of the property at Johannesplatz 8-­10 belonged to his father Karl Frank and the other half to my client Hans Frank. Mr. Karl Frank was deported to Po­ land as an elderly man of 86. There has been no news of him since 1940 and he is therefore surely no longer among the living.” (Dr. Paul Mahler, lawyer, to the municipality of Viehofen near St. Pölten, Vienna, 12.3.1947)

Karl Frank, born 20 January 1858 in Wessely (Veselí nad Moravou) to Moses and Theresie, née Rosenzweig, came from a very religious Moravian Jewish family. He and his wife Mathilde, née Duschak (1866 Gaya/Kyjov–1926 Vienna), had six children: Irma (married to Isidor Reiss), Hans, Margarete (a nurse born on 6 July 1898 in Viehofen), Franz, Otto, and Friederike, known as “Fritzi”, who died in 1910 aged 21, “deeply mourned by her parents and siblings”. Karl Frank owned a pearl barley mill on Johannesplatz 8-10 in Viehofen and was a member of the board of the Jewish community organization in St. Pölten. According to his grandson Abraham Harry Reiss, he kept “strictly kosher”, fought in World War I, and was loyal to the emperor. He was a loving grandfather to Harry and his sister Ditta.

According to his property declaration of 7 July 1938, Karl Frank was a wealthy businessman until his bank deposits and his mill were “Aryanized” that same month. Following his eviction, he and his daughter Margarete were taken in on 1 December 1938 by Samuel and Mathilde Hacker in Gabelsberger Straße 3, from whom they rented a bedsit with a kitchen for 20 Reichsmark per month.

On 25 September 1939, the father and daughter were registered in Türkenstraße 31/6 in Vienna’s ninth district, from where they were forcibly relocated to another collective apartment in Rembrandtstraße 17/15 in the second district in April 1942. In August 1942, they were deported to Theresienstadt on a so-called “elderly transport” – the average age of the 1000 deportees was 69 – where they had to live in the attic of Block H-V. Karl Frank died just three weeks later, on 11 September 1942, of pneumonia.

Margarete had stood by her father throughout the entire time and had to endure his death in Theresienstadt. She was deported on one of the last transports to Auschwitz on 19 October 1944, where she was murdered. The date of death is unknown. A Stone of Remembrance is being placed for her sister Irma and brother-in-law Isidor Reiss in Linzer Straße 13. On 12 October 1950, the following call was published in the “Amtsblatt zur Wiener Zeitung“ Nr. 246, appealing to any potential heirs, including Irma, to get in touch with the district court of Vienna’s first district within the space of one year concerning the family’s estate: “Karl Frank, previously residing in Rembrandtstraße 17 in Vienna’s second district, died on 8 May 1945. No last will and testament has been found.”

Camilla Briefwechsler, the daughter of Karl’s brother Rudolf Frank and his wife Elsa (née Frankl, died 1927) was born on 10 May 1910 in Viehofen, worked as a sales assistant, and was an active member of the Jewish youth organization in St. Pölten. Following a brief marriage with Rudolf Eisner, she entered into a relationship with the dental technician Berthold Benjamin Briefwechsler from St. Pölten. They fled together to France, got married on the way, were arrested in Colleges, interned in the prisoner camp of Casseneuil (Département Lot-et-Garonne, 114 kilometers northwest of Toulouse), and were deported to Auschwitz on 9 September 1942. Camilla was murdered there on 20 October 1942. Her husband was transferred to Groß-Rosen on 11 February 1945, where all trace of him went lost. Her father and siblings survived the Shoah in Argentina, the Belgian Congo, Bolivia, and Palestine/Eretz Israel.