Testimonies

Part of the archival materials of the State Museum at Majdanek are private documents and photographs found on the grounds of the former German concentration camp KL Lublin and a labour camp located at the former airport of the Lublin Aircraft Factory, the so-called Flugplatz.

The documents belonged both to the prisoners of Majdanek as well as Jews deported directly to the ghettos, and ultimately to the death camps in the Lublin District. The deportees took the most important documents with them – first of all identification cards, passports, service cards, various types of attestations, school certificates and university diplomas – in short, everything that could be necessary in a new place. Many people had images of their family members, friends and acquaintances with them, some even took entire albums filled with photographs.

While material goods, such as jewellery, money, valuables, clothes and others, were confiscated by the Germans, the personal keepsakes of the victims were destroyed. Documents and photographs currently preserved in the museum collections have survived by accident. They are the only trace of the murdered – a silent but telling testimony of their lives, and at the same time evidence of the crime committed against them.

Among these materials, a collection of documents and photographs related to the Jewish Kral family from Vienna has survived.

Emma and Moritz Kral lived at 16 Nordbahnstrasse in Vienna in the 2nd district of Leopoldstadt. Moritz was born on July 17, 1884, Emma – on January 4, 1886. They both came from Vienna. They had two children: Gertrud (born April 21, 1912) and Walter (born September 6, 1926).

We do not know much about the economic status of the Kral family, but they certainly could afford to educate their daughter Gertrud, who graduated in psychology from the University of Vienna in 1937 with a PhD, which was not very common in the 1930s. An interesting fact is that Gertrud attended classes led by Sigmund Freud. Moritz Kral was a clerk. Emma probably stayed with her husband.

The collection of documents belonging to the Kral family includes, among other things, Gertrud and Walter's school certificates. We can find out that Gertrud attended the girls' gymnasium at Hollandstrasse 4 in Vienna (Realgymnasium für Mädchen im II Bezirk). She was an exemplary student. Her brother Walter was a student at the primary school for boys at 26 Pazmanitengasse in Vienna (Allgemeine Volksschule für Knaben der Stadt Wien II). [pic.1] [pic.2]

Among the objects there are also numerous photographs showing all family members at different times of their lives. Most of the images were described on the reverse. Unfortunately, those presenting Moritz and Emma Kral lack dates, although some of them can be approximated, mainly based on the photographic technique as well as the outfit and hairstyles characteristic of the era.

One of the three images made using the same technique – namely, a negative on a plate, a copy on a cardboard substrate, with the imprinted name M. Laurisch photographic studio in Vienna, shows a young, elegantly dressed man with a fanciful mustache, holding an infant in his arms. The man is Moritz Kral, probably with his daughter Gertrud. The photograph was taken around 1913. [pic.3] [pic.4]

The other two photographs show a young couple, Moritz and Emma – which is confirmed by a handwritten description on the reverse – and a baby lying on its stomach, most likely little Gertrud.

The remaining images were taken much later. This is indicated by the photographic technique and descriptions or dedications on the reverses. They show the adult twenty-six-year-old Getrud and her husband Kurt Felsenburg. The couple married in 1938. In the same year, Gertrud and Kurt Felsenburg left Austria and moved to the Netherlands, from where they intended to sail to the USA. [pic.5] [pic.6]

Walter Kral

[fot.7]

Walter Kral, Gertrud's younger brother, also lived in Amsterdam. He stayed with his relatives and led the life of a typical carefree teenager. This is confirmed by photographs in which Walter poses with his cousins in an idyllic natural setting.

Apart from several images from Walter's stay in the Netherlands, two letters written by him to his parents also survived. In a letter of November 17, 1941, the boy describes current affairs, including his English course and visit to the exhibition of sculptures by Rodin. He also writes about the first cold days and about his hope that he will soon be able to attend a Jewish school. He ends his letter with greetings, which he completes with million kisses. Below the text there is a fragment added by his aunt with whom he lived. [pic. 8] [pic.9] [pic.10]

Walter wrote another letter on February 2, 1942, assuring his parents that everything was fine with him. He regrets that his father is so rarely at home, because he would very much like to receive an extensive letter from him. He asks his mother where and in what capacity his father works. It is worth mentioning here that at that time Moritz Kral stayed a labour camp for Jews, and was therefore unable to write any letters to his son. Emma probably did it on his behalf.

Walter also describes the activities at school. Presumably, he was apprenticing, because he mentions a large drill he worked on and that he has to take soap to school because his hands are stained with metal and grease after classes. At home, he could not wash himself because the sewage system froze and there was no water. The teenager wrote about everyday trivial matters, but when analysing his letters today, they take on a deeper meaning.

The letter mentioned above clearly shows that even at the beginning of 1942, Walter Kral's life continued its usual rhythm. Perhaps it was otherwise, and the boy did not want to worry his parents. We do not know that. His question about the photos he received from Emma and Moritz is also striking. Did the parents have a feeling that their paths would separate forever?

Walter Kral did not survive the war. He was sent to the transit camp for Jews in Westerbork. Originally, the facility was established in 1939 by the Dutch government as a shelter for Jewish refugees from Germany. In July 1942, it was taken over by the Germans and from then on, mainly Jews from the Netherlands were sent there. We do not know exactly when Walter Kral got to Westerbork, but the date of his deportation from there to the Theresienstadt ghetto (Terezín in Czechia) is known. It took place two days before his 18th birthday, on September 4, 1944. After about three weeks, on September 29, 1944, Walter Kral found himself in a transport heading to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where he would eventually be murdered.

Gerti and Kurt Felsenburg

Coming back to Gertrud and Kurt, it should be explained that at the beginning of 1940 their ship from the Netherlands reached New York. Shortly thereafter, the couple moved to Denver, Colorado. Photographs from the early 1940s that Gertrud and Kurt attached to their letters sent to Emma and Moritz show the young couple in the company of friends or while travelling. It looks as if the spouses tried to show Gertrud's parents how happy they were away from the war-torn Europe. [pic.11] [pic.12]

However, the brutal reality could not be completely escaped. The same is evidenced by the letters that Moritz and Emma wrote to their daughter. On the one hand, they were happy that she was safe, and on the other, they informed her that there was no chance of their getting out of Austria. It was already 1941. Persecution of Jews in Europe continued; deportations to the East began. In Vienna, Jews were forced to do public works. The Germans successively limited their civil rights, confiscated their property and rationed food. The situation of the Jews worsened day by day. [pic.13]

Emma's letters to Gertrud show that Moritz, who was a World War I veteran, also struggled with depression resulting from post-traumatic stress disorder.

At the same time, Dr. Gertrud Felsenburg started working as a psychologist at the National Jewish Hospital in Denver, which she continued until 1946. Later, she worked at the Institute for Motivational Research, and from 1955 at the Jewish National Home for Asthmatic Children. From 1960, she was a consultant at Booth Memorial Hospital. [pic.14]

Emma and Moritz Kral

One day, Emma and Moritz stopped responding to letters.

In May or June 1946, Gertrud finally received a letter from Vienna. Her uncle, Samuel Kral, wrote to her: “My beloved Gerti! I have waited for years for this hour when I will be able to testify to the daughter of the nobility and courage shown by her Mother.”

From the rest of the letter, we learn about the fate of Gertrud Kral's parents. It turned out that in November 1940, Moritz Kral was sent to one of the forced labour camps for Jews in Pottschach. The locality was remote from Vienna, so Moritz asked the construction company that employed him to transfer him to work in Vienna. His request was granted, but after a few days he was arrested and imprisoned in a collective camp for Jews at Sperlgasse in Vienna. [pic. 15] [pic.16]

As Samuel Kral wrote, any Jew, even a child, knew then that being interned in that camp entailed deportation to Poland occupied by the Third Reich, which in turn meant a death sentence. Consequently, Moritz found himself trapped. When his wife Emma found out about the fact, despite the protests of relatives and friends as well as their promises about the possibility of sheltering her, she decided to join her husband. And so it happened. [pic.17]

On April 27, 1942, a train with 1,000 Jews left Vienna. The destination was Włodawa, a small town in the Lublin region, where a Jewish ghetto was operational. There, the Germans placed both local Jews and those deported from Western Europe. The only way out from the ghetto led to the death camp in Sobibór, located nearby. A mere three persons would survive from the transport in which Emma and Moritz arrived...

Perhaps Gertrud found out about the death of her loved ones earlier, but Samuel's letter must have shaken her deeply.

In 1977, she gave a testimony to Yad Vashem, informing about the extermination of her closest family members.

Miriam “Miki” Felsenburg

In 2017, the State Museum at Majdanek opened an exhibition of documents entitled “Testimonies of Life at the Place of Extermination.” It presented private documents and photographs from museum collections, related directly to prisoners of KL Lublin and victims of the German death camps in Bełżec and Sobibór. During the preparations for the exhibition, it was possible to select a substantial collection about the Kral family from Vienna. The author of the exhibition, who is also the author of this article, has conducted numerous Internet searches. During one of them, I came across the name of Miriam Felsenburg, who also described the fate of her murdered relatives from Vienna, claiming to be Walter Kral's niece. It turned out that the daughter of Gertrud and Kurt Felsenburg is lives in Boulder, Colorado (USA). In 2018, we managed to establish contact with Miriam, or actually – because she wished to be called this way – with Miki Felsenburg. 71-year-old Miki had just returned to Colorado after more than 40 years of absence. She spent most of her life in North Carolina. She taught law at the Wake Forest University. She also had a doctorate in medical sciences.

After receiving from the Museum the copies of all documents and photographs related to her, Miriam was amazed not only by the size of the collection, but also by the good condition of the mementoes of her parents and grandparents. In the letter in which she thanked for the sent materials, she wrote that she had had no idea about their existence. She was very touched by this and grateful for making contact with her. In return, she sent scans of letters that Gertrud Felsenburg carefully kept all her life.

Having learned about the planned opening of a new museum on the site of the former German death camp in Sobibór, Miki wanted to come to Poland and be present at the ceremony. On this occasion, she wanted to donate to the Museum the keepsakes of Moritz and Emma that she possessed. The thought of meeting and getting to know Mika Felsenburg personally was very exciting.

Epilogue

2020, however, began with the SarsCov-2 coronavirus pandemic that overturned the lives of all people in the world. In March 2020, the sad news of the death of Miriam Felsenburg arrived. She lost the fight against cancer. Unfortunately, she did not manage to visit the place tragically marked by the death of her relatives.

In October 2020, the permanent historical exhibition was opened in Sobibór. Without celebration, without guests and without relatives of the victims. It is a memorial site for thousands of Jewish women, men and children who were brought to the camp in Sobibór by the German Nazis and then brutally murdered.

Emma and Moritz Kral took photographs, letters from children, their school certificates with them on the last journey, aware of the inevitability of their death. The items must have been important to them because they documented their life together and showed them as people of flesh and blood. It is hard to forget the smiling faces in the photographs, the red rose on the Mother's Day card or the fragments of letters. [pic.18] [pic.19]

All these keepsakes are marked by emotions: joy, sadness, fear. Looking at the deportation list which includes, among many other names, the personalities of Emma and Moritz Kral, we are mainly thinking about the mass dimension of the German crime. Sometimes we focus more on the genocide mechanism itself rather than on the individual victims. Personal mementos of the murdered are then very helpful in restoring the proper perspective.

Getting to know the history of the Krals from Vienna was possible mainly thanks to the preserved private documents, which in addition are arranged almost in chronological order. From postcards sent by Moritz in 1918 to Emma, through their children's school certificates, official documents with Nazi symbols, correspondence between children and parents, to the letter from Samuel Kral. The latter, despite the fact that it did not originally come from the collections of the State Museum at Majdanek, eventually found its place in the archives, because it is an epilogue in the story of the Krals. Unexpectedly, it gives the tragic story a romantic character and makes it even easier to remember.

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Author:

Anna Wójcik
Head of the Archives of the State Museum at Majdanek