Julius Wald (M / Austria, 1930), Holocaust survivor

Julius Wald (M / Austria, 1930), Holocaust survivor

• KEYWORDS : <Refugees> <United States> <Kraus Rescue Mission>

Biography

Julius Wald was born on 1 February 1930 in Vienna, Austria to Helene (Henie, née Hasenfratz, 1895-1970) and Markus (Mordko) Wald. He had two sisters, Leonore (1925-2006) and Mimi (b. 1927). After the German annexation of Austria in March 1938, Markus was arrested and imprisoned in the Dachau concentration camp. The family was also forced out of their apartment and went to live briefly with Helene’s sister Mina. Markus was transferred to the Buchenwald concentration camp, and Helene secured his release with the promise to leave the country. Helene’s brother-in-law Max Rosenberg sponsored Mimi and Leonore, and they immigrated to the United States on the SS Nieuw Amsterdam in May 1939. They lived with Markus’s sister Fanny and her husband Jack Laufer in Hartford, CT. Helene secured a visa for herself, but Markus could not due to being on the Romanian quota. She arrived in the United States on 9 February 1940 on the SS Saturnia. Markus fled Vienna, and became a partisan fighter. He was killed in the village of Bubanj near Niš, Serbia. Julius was selected as one of the "50 children" to go with Gilbert and Eleanor Kraus to the United States. The children arrived in New York on 3 June 1939 via the SS President Harding. The children were first sent to the Brith Sholom camp in Allentown, PA. Julius was then sent to live with Joseph and Rose Leonard, Romania Jewish immigrants originally from Iași, Romania. On 11 September 1944 Julius enlisted in the New York Guard at age 14 by lying about his age. He worked at a German prisoner of war camp in the United States, and was discharged on 26 June 1945 to join the United States Army.