Vilko Kremer (M / Croatia, 1934), Holocaust survivor

Vilko Kremer (M / Croatia, 1934), Holocaust survivor

Hermann Kremer (M / Croatia, 1930), Holocaust survivor

+ cousins (son & daughter of Uncle Eisig Hendel and maternal Aunt Hana):

David Hendel (M / Croatia, 1928), Holocaust survivor

Ruth Hendel / Tamar Hendel-Fishman (F / Croatia, 1935), Holocaust survivor

+ cousins, Leo, Jeta and Gisela (son & daughters of their paternal uncle, Wolf Hendel, and his wife, both deceased):

< Leo Hendel (M / Croatia, 1920), Holocaust survivor]] >

Jeta Hendel (F / Croatia, 1925), Holocaust survivor

Gisela Hendel (F / Croatia, 1935), Holocaust survivor

• KEYWORDS : <Refugees> <Italy> <Hidden Children> <Fort Ontario> <United States>

Biography

Hermann (2 Jan 1930) and Vilko (22 July 1934) were born in Zagreb, Croatia, to Aron Kremer and Bertha Weissman Kremer, sister of Hana Weissman Hendel. Father was killed in the Holocaust. They fled to Italy with mother and the Hendels. As refugees they lived in Rovigo. When the Germans invaded Italy, they moved to Rome under false papers. In July 1944 the entire family sailed to Fort Ontario, United States.

Sources

Fort Ontario Directory (yes) -- Pizzuti Database (yes)

USHMM

Eisig Yitchak Hendel (1903-1992; later Isaac Handy) was born in 1903 in the village of Turza Wielka, Poland to David and Reisel Handel. He had one brother Wolf. He married Hana Sarah Weissman in 1927 in Zagreb, Yugoslavia (present day Zagreb, Croatia). Hana (later Hana Hendel Handy) 1908-1998) was born in 1908 in Ruda Różaniecka, Poland to Mordechai Weissman and Yetta Schneider-Weissman. She had one brother, Samuel, and three sisters, Bertha (1911-1997), Haika (1921-2011), and Darinka (b. 1922).

Eisig and Hana had two children, Ruth (b. 1935, now Tamar Hendel-Fishman) and David (b. 1928), both born in Zagreb. They owned a dry goods store. After the German invasion of Yugoslavia in 1941, the family went into hiding and sought ways to escape. Hana and Ruth left Zagreb first, followed by Eisig and David soon after. They were joined by Hana’s mother Yetta, and her sister Bertha and her two sons Volko and Herman in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Prior to fleeing Zagreb, Yetta’s husband Mordechai and Bertha’s husband Aron were both killed. The family was then able get to Rovigo, Italy. They remained there until the German invasion of Italy in 1943. They fled to Rome, and lived there using false papers. In August 1944 the Hendels were able to get on a refugee ship, the USNS Henry Gibbins, and sail to the United States. They were relocated to the Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter in Oswego, New York.

By 1946, the family moved to New York City, settling in Flushing, Queens. David served in the Korean War, and later became a dentist. Ruth became a public school teacher in New York and Maryland, and later became an art therapist. Eisig, who had apprenticed as a jeweler before the war, found work in that profession. Hana’s sister Bertha and her sons Vilko and Herman also immigrated to the United States. Her mother Yetta and her sisters Haika and Darinka immigrated to Brazil after the war.