This is my nana, Ludmilla Leah Breier. She is no longer here but her spirit lives on. The love she had for other human beings was undeniable. I think about her quite often. Family and friends have said, “we are mirror reflections of each other.” I am honored and proud to look like her and I hope I was lucky enough to get a sliver of her personality. My purpose is to carry her memory as well as The Breier Family history forward in all the most authentic and factual ways I can. While simultaneously trying to fight antisemitism and holocaust deniers. She really was one of the warmest and kindest people I knew. I wish I could sit down with her today and ask her all the questions that keep coming up about her early upbringing in Leopoldstadt (the historically Jewish district of Vienna) Bezirk 2 on 27 Praterstrasse.
Historical facts about Jewish persecution in Vienna
It is a little-known fact that the expulsion and murder of the Jews in 1938 – 1945, was not the first such occurrence in the history of Austria.
The first officially decreed expulsion took place in 1420. The Jews residing in Vienna at the time were robbed of their belongings and banished. On March 12th 1421, the 300 Jews still remaining in Vienna were taken to the meadows of Erdberg and burned alive at the stake.
In 1600, Jews were again allowed to take up residence in Vienna, in the area corresponding to today’s 2nd District (Bezirk) of the City. By 1660, about 1300 Jewish men, women and children lived there. Nonetheless, anti-Jewish acts of violence began again. On February 28th 1670, Emperor Leopold I decreed that all Jews must leave Austria. The great Synagogue was transformed and renamed as the Leopoldskirche (Leopold Church).
Recounting these events provides a tragic insight into the prehistory of the Shoah in Austria, which raged there from 1938 to 1945 and in which 65.000 Jewish children, women, and men were murdered.
What was going through her mind during the unknown journey to the USA? How was she able to leave everything behind and what about her family? They were unable to escape the Nazi Regime. What was her Mother’s fate? The questions don’t just go away, each question becomes longer and longer. Some might have to go unanswered which is something I will have to live with.
Initially, my research began in 2008 and has never stopped. Everything is a work in progress. There is no true story yet and even then it’s still a story. No one is here to confirm or deny the actual truth. I am still trying to organize all the timelines and cross-reference all the documents I have been so fortunate to acquire, see or copy. I have to make sure if things all line up and even then, mistakes were made on documents, and nothing is truly perfect. In my family, no one has ever recorded oral history accounts. The only close attempt was made by Kurt Breier ( Lilly’s brother). This is one of those telephone stories. I was told he made recorded tapes of his own experience. He is no longer living and the Viennese Government will not release any information to me as yet. More to come on this. I will of course circle back. Maybe when my Austrian passport comes through I will be able to have more clout as a researcher in Vienna.
Unfortunately, the next generation has all to go on, is lore, uncorroborated stories that have been passed down. It is my duty and job to change this. I find this very disheartening and a disservice to my relatives who have perished in the Shoah. The Breier Family and their next of kin cannot speak out and tell their truth, so let us respect and honor their memory with the true story with the facts.
This is no small feat, to connect all the dots. I have spent many years trying to put all the documents together, spending hours at The Center for Jewish History going through many microfilms, the archives on Yad-Vashem, JewishGen, BadArolsen, ITS, and countless other websites, as well as contacting foreign country government agencies to obtain proper documents. As well as learning from properly trained professional Genealogists and Cultural Anthropologists who specify in Jewish History. I have even compiled some oral histories from my own living relatives. Specifically her children: Rudy and Steve and from those who lived with her and knew her, my half sister, felicia and my cousins Josh and Chris. And if I left anyone out, I am sorry, reach out to me and I will take your story into account.
My nana was Jewish and had to hide her identity when she got to America. She was unable to raise her sons in the traditional sense of Jewish. But later on in life Rudy (my father) and Steve (my uncle) came to her to ask her if they were. The truth was revealed. I wonder how they knew? These are only bits and pieces from her past.
My family history is somewhat of a conundrum. Most stories told and retold develop into long games of telephone with unknown originators. I am left with missing or wrong or even very embellished misinformation.
Unfortunately, most of the people I would like to speak with have passed on or have been murdered in concentration camps. There are no graves for them. This is true. I know this because I have found the death list for Alexander Breier as well as Kurt Robert Breier, who was put into the camps. Elsa Weiss(Breier) it is unknown exactly what train she was put on and if she was sent directly to Auschwitz. In late 1945, many documents were set on fire by the Nazis in order to destroy the evidence. What I found most disturbing is that a lot of concentration camps were still in operation during 1945. As for my Great Grandfather, Alexander Breier there were numerous conflicting paperwork regarding how he was killed and when. I had a small glimmer of hope, maybe he escaped.
There was no escape. I found one document where it says he was was beaten to death by Nazi’s in Muhldorf camp and the other paper card states he died of tetanus, hardening cramps and catalepsy. His number was #83370 and was listed as Sandor Breier.
Alexander Breier was picked up in Budapest, Hungary (Last-known address: Budapest, Nipsinhaz u 22) and then was transported to Muhldorf Death camp located in Bavaria in the woods.
On August 20 1944 he was deported to Concentration Camp Dachau/commando. It was a satellite camp of Dachau. The conditions were horrible at Camp:Mettenheim I.
On January 6 of 1945 Alexander Breier was murdered at 8:00 p.m. There were many different dates regarding his FATE. January 16th of 1945 is when he was subtracted from the camp strength as deceased prisoner. He died in outlying commando Mühldorf of Concentration Camp Dachau. No one knows where his final resting place is, but what I have read about Muhldorf is that there were many massive graves.
I recently discovered this site:
https://www.latzundpartner.de/en/projekte/besondere-orte/gedenkort-muhldorfer-hart-de/
which looks to be new memorial site for the mass grave site:
https://wernerpriller.wordpress.com/tag/mass-grave-memorial-site-muhldorfer-hart/
Historical information about Muhldorf:
Between July 1944 and April 1945, when the US Army overran the area, more than 8,000 prisoners had been deported to the main camp at Mettenheim and to its subcamps.
According to the account of a prisoner who turned over the camp's administrative files to American authorities, the Mettenheim camp held some 2,000 inmates, a nearby women's camp 500 persons, the “forest camps” (Waldlager) about 2,250 male and female inmates, while two other camps held a total of 550 persons. Most of the prisoners were Hungarian Jews, but there were also Jews from Greece, France, Italy as well as political prisoners from Russia, Poland, Germany, and Serbia. The surrounding area also contained numerous forced-labor and prisoner-of-war camps to supply workers for the factory.
Conditions at the Mühldorf complex were dismal. As at the Kaufering camps, the SS guards carried out “selections” at the Mühldorf complex in the fall of 1944, deporting hundreds of sick and disabled inmates to the gas chambers at Auschwitz. It is estimated that more than half of the prisoners held there perished following their deportation to the Auschwitz-Birkenau killing center or died on site from overwork, abuse, shootings, and disease. Prisoners in the “forest camps V and VI” (Waldlager V and VI), located near the town of Ampfing, were housed in earthen huts, barracks partially submerged in the ground with soil-covered roofs designed to camouflage the structures from Allied aerial reconnaissance. Prisoners frequently worked 10 to 12 hour days hauling heavy bags of cement and carrying out other arduous construction tasks.
In late April, as the US Army approached the camps, the SS guards forcibly evacuated some 3,600 prisoners from the camp on death marches.
source USHMM : https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/muehldorf
In the future, I would like to purchase stones of remembrances (700 euro) for my family members who once lived in Vienna- as a living memorial at 27 Pratterstrasse for Ludmilla Breier, Kurt Breier, Alexander Breier, and Elsa Weiss (Breier).
https://steinedererinnerung.net/en/about-us/
I was able to get their names on the memorial in Ostarrichi Park in Vienna.
https://www.shoah-namensmauern-wien.at/en/the-schmerlingplatz/
In the USA, there was and still is a real fear of persecution for being Jewish. Lilly was born in Vienna, Austria on June 12, 1916. Both of her parents: Alexander Breier and Elsa Weiss were born in Vienna. Along with her brother Kurt Robert Breier. My nana was forced to flee Vienna, Austria with her husband, Oscar Gustav Heintze, and come to America by boat. The family lore goes she was only able to bring one suitcase. Her parents and her brother were unable to escape. Her father, Alexander Breier was put onto transport as well as her mother, Elsa Weiss.
more to come soon.