Henry Brecher (M / Austria, 1932), Holocaust survivor

Henry Brecher (M / Austria, 1932), Holocaust survivor [foster brother]

Alfred Rosenthal (M / Yugoslavia, 1932), Holocaust survivor

Edith Rosenthal (F / Yugoslavia, 1936), Holocaust survivor

• KEYWORDS : <Refugees> <Italy> -- <Fort Ontario> <United States>

Biography

Heinz (now Henry) Brecher was born on August 29, 1932 in Graz, Austria, the only child of Ernst Brecher and Klara Taussig Brecher. After the Anschluss, Heinz was sent to live with relatives in Zagreb, Felix and Edith Rendi. Heinz's parents were arrested and perished in the Holocaust. Three years later, when the Nazis occupied Zagreb, Heinz went to the town of Split to live with friends of his aunt, the Rosenthals. In the spring of 1944, Heinz and his foster mother, Lydia Rosenthal and her two children Alfred and Edith fled across the Adriatic Sea to Italy with the help of the partisan underground railroad. After a short stay in the Bari displaced persons camp and then in the countryside near Santa Croce, Heinz came to the United States on the Henry Gibbins, a military troop transport. The refugees were taken to the Emergency Refugee Shelter at Fort Ontario, Oswego in August 1944. At Fort Ontario Henry (Heinrich) was registered as one of the children of Lydia Rosenthal, and was declared born on "April 28, 1934." In reality, he had the same age as Alfred.

In February 1946 Henry went to live with cousins in New York. He graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in 1955 with a degree in mechanical engineering and after completing the ROTC military service obligation in the Air Force went to work for Pratt and Whitney Aircraft, the aircraft engine manufacturer, in East Hartford, Connecticut. For many years he worked as a scientist in Antartica.

USHMM

Heinz (now Henry) Brecher is the only child of Ernst Brecher and Klara Taussig Brecher. He was born on August 29, 1932 in Graz, Austria where his father was a merchant. After the Nazis marched into Austria in March 1938, Heinz was sent to live with relatives in Zagreb, Felix and Edith Rendi. Three years later, when the Nazis occupied Zagreb, Heinz went to the town of Split to live with friends of his aunt. Then in the spring of 1944, he and his foster mother, Lydia Rosenthal and her two children Alfred and Edith fled across the Adriatic Sea to Italy with the help of the partisan underground railroad. After a short stay in the Bari displaced persons camp and then in the countryside near Santa Croce, Heinz came to the United States on the Henry Gibbins, a military troop transport. The refugees were taken to the Emergency Refugee Shelter at Fort Ontario, Oswego in August 1944. In February 1946 Henry went to live with cousins in New York. Both of Heinz's parents perished in the concentration camps. Of Ernst's four siblings, two uncles survived. One made his way to England via Shanghai; the other spent the war in internment camps in Siberia and later returned to Austria.