Leo bretholz biography

Overview

Interview Summary

Leo Bretholz, born on March 6, 1921 in Vienna, Austria, discusses escaping from a train headed to Drancy; his experience during liberation in Limoges, France; his search for his family; how he supported himself during the war; his immigration to the United States from France after the war; his life in Baltimore, MD and his views on segregation; the community group he founded, Prejudiced Anonymous, and their open speeches against hate; his survivor guilt; his family in America; his views on religion and a Jewish state; his feelings about going back to his birthplace in Vienna; and his relationships with other survivors.

Interviewee

Bretholz, Mr. Leo

Interviewer

Dan Collison

Date

interview:  1998 June 04

Credit Line

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, courtesy of the Jeff and Toby Herr Foundation

Physical Details

Language

English

Genre/Form

Oral histories.

Extent

3 sound cassettes (74 min.).

Rights & Restrictions

Conditions on Access

There are

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Leo Bretholz

Holocaust survivor

Leo Bretholz
Born	(1921-03-06)March 6, 1921 Vienna, Austria
Died	March 8, 2014(2014-03-08) (aged 93) Pikesville, Maryland
Spouse	Florine Cohen (m. 1952–2009; her death)
Children	Three

Leo Bretholz (March 6, 1921 – March 8, 2014) was a Holocaust survivor who, in 1942, escaped from a train heading for Auschwitz.^[1] He has also written a book on his experiences, titled Leap into Darkness.

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 Anschluss in March 1938, many of his relatives were arrested. At his mother's insistence, Bretholz fled on a train to Trier, Germany, where he was met by a smuggler. He swam across the Sauer River into Luxembourg, where he spent

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Holocaust Survivor Oral Histories

Leo Bretholz was born on March 6, 1921 to Max Bretholz and Dora (Fischmann) Bretholz. He grew up in Vienna, Austria with his younger sisters, Henny and Edith (Ditta). His father was an actor in the Yiddish theater and worked as a tailor until he died of an ulcer in 1930. The Anschluss (the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany) occurred in March 1938. Many of Leo’s family were arrested by the Nazis and Leo, encouraged by his mother, fled the country. He escaped into Luxembourg, but was arrested a few days later and eventually taken into Belgium, arriving in Antwerp on November 11, 1938. There, he studied to be an electrician at a public trade school because his only other option was moving to an internment camp. In May 1940, Belgian authorities arrested Leo because he was an “enemy alien,” and they sent him to Saint-Cyprien, an internment camp near Spain’s border. He escaped and eventually lived in an assigned residence in Cauterets, France for almost a year. On August 26, 1941, he left Cauterets to avoid deportation but w