be-002157-kd 00950
type: RecordSet
location of originals: Amos Russak, Private collection, Israel
accruals: No further accruals are to be expected
conditions of access: Contact Kazerne Dossin Research Centre: archives@kazernedossin.eu
conditions of use: Contact Kazerne Dossin Research Centre: archives@kazernedossin.eu
has beginning date: 1940-01-01
has end date: 1942-12-31
has or had holder: be-002157
has or had some members with language: deu
has or had some members with language: eng
has or had subject: 556
has or had subject: 304
has record set type: Collection
history: Amos Russak, grandson of Julius Mehrer's widow Stella Bellak and her second husband Henoch Russak, kindly provided Kazerne Dossin with a digital copy of the items in this collection. Contact with mister Russak was established thanks to the kind intervention of Heimo Gruber, biographer of Julius Mehrer.
history: Julius Mehrer was born on 18 July 1908 in Lemberg, the Austrian empire (today Lviv, Ukraine), as the youngest child of Mozes Josef Mehrer and Krajndel alias Karoline Hitnik. His older brother, named Zygfryd, had been born in Lviv on 3 June 1904. At the outbreak of the First World War the Mehrer family presumably fled from Polish Galicia to Vienna, to escape the Russian troops. Julius’ father Josef passed away there in 1915. In 1920 the family shortly returned to Poland, after which Julius settled in Vienna permanently in 1923. His brother Zygfryd also resided in the Austrian capital, but, in 1931, he emigrated to The Hague, the Netherlands, where Zygfryd would survive the Second World War and where he would pass away on 7 June 1950. Their mother Krajndel remained in Lviv after 1920. Her fate remains unknown to us. Julius Mehrer became a staff member at one of Vienna’s Arbeiterbüchereien (Workers' Libraries of the City of Vienna). On 3 September 1933 he married Stella Bellak, who was born on 21 February 1913 in Vienna and who also worked for the Arbeiterbüchereien. The couple lived at Zirkusgasse 23 in Vienna’s second district, where Julius’ mother-in-law Rosa Bellak-Ehrenstein and brother-in-law Otto Bellak and his family also lived. After the Anschluss on 13 March 1938, all Jewish staff members of the Arbeiterbüchereien were fired. Julius Mehrer was among those who lost their job. His wife Stella had already left the institute in 1936. In May 1938 the couple filled out emigration documents with the Israelitischen Kultusgemeinde Wien [Vienna Jewish Community]. Being threatened with arrest by the Gestapo and internment in a concentration camp, Julius and Stella Mehrer-Bellak subsequently fled from Vienna to Belgium, illegally crossing the German-Belgian border near Aachen on 20 October 1938. They were hoping to emigrate to the United States and received financial support from the Jewish Ezra aid committee while awaiting their affidavit. Upon their arrival in Belgium …
identifier: KD_00950
record resource extent: 11 digitised images (6 documents)
results or resulted from: 1
scope and content: This collection contains: two postcards from Krajndel alias Karoline Mehrer-Hitnik in Lemberg (today Lviv, Ukraine) to her son Julius Mehrer in Antwerp, 21 March 1940 and 1 April 1940 ; a postcard from Rosa Bellak-Ehrenstein and her sister Margit Friedmann-Ehrenstein in Vienna, Austria, to Rosa’s son-in-law and daughter Julius and Stella Mehrer-Bellak in Brussels, 8 July 1942 ; a postcard from Rosa Bellak-Ehrenstein in Vienna, Austria, to her son-in-law and daughter Julius and Stella Mehrer-Bellak in Brussels, 29 July 1942 ; a postcard from Julius Mehrer, who was being detained as a forced labourer by Organisation Todt in labour camps Dannes and Condette in Northern France, to his wife Stella Bellak in Brussels, 5 October 1942 ; a letter from the American Consulate General in Antwerp, Belgium, to Julius Mehrer, informing Julius that all work at the Antwerp office has been suspended indefinitely and that his name is still on the Polish quota waiting list for an American visa, 6 January 1941.
title: Julius Mehrer