Wiznitzer Family. Collection

Contact Kazerne Dossin Research Centre: archives@kazernedossin.eu Mendel Wiznitzer was born on 14 May 1885 in Zabolotiv, Ukraine. He was the son of Feige Wiznitzer, born in Vascouti in Romania and died in Zablotiv in 1898. On his way to the west of Europe, he stayed in Vienna. During the First World War, he served as a soldier in the Austro-Hungarian army. There he married Rachela Feiger on 10 January 1920. She was born in October 1887 in Pistyn, Ukraine. Mendel and Rachela had two children: Beate and Josef Wiznitzer. At the end of 1938, Mendel Wiznitzer was able to bring his daughter from Vienna to the English Channel ferry and salvation. Beate escaped to England, but Mendel couldn't accompany her further. After his arrival in Belgium, Mendel lived in Berchem in Guldenvliesstraat 31. After the war began in 1940, Mendel Wiznitzer moved to Van Spangenstraat 9, also in Berchem. During his time in Belgium, Mendel Wiznitzer worked as a merchant in clothing fabrics. He was able to correspond with his daughter Beate via the Red Cross. On 11 September 1942, during the third raid in Antwerp by the German occupier, Mendel Wiznitzer was arrested and taken to the Dossin barracks in Mechelen. The next day on 12 September, he was deported from Mechelen with Transport IX to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Mendel Wiznitzer did not survive deportation. Rachela Feiger was arrested in Vienna at about the same time as her husband, and murdered in the camp of Sobibor. Beate and Josef Wiznitzer survived the war. In 1948 Beate married the British Stanley Popperwell. They were both professional musicians, she a pianist and he a violinist. They named their son Andy. Beate Wiznitzer died in September 2001 and her brother a year later. This collection contains: one photo of Beate Wiznitzer, who was the mother of Andy Popperwell, her brother Josef Wiznitzer, and their parents Mendel and Rachel Wiznitzer; one photo of Mendel Wiznitzer in his soldier uniform in the top left with his comrades in the Austro-Hungarian army during the First World War; one passport of Beate Wiznitzer with which she was able to enter the United Kingdom at the end of December 1938; and an envelope in which Beate's last letter to her father Mendel was returned to her in 1942.