Whispers of Jewish
Heritage
Armin Hermann “aka
Hirsh Tsvi” Feiler
I
was about 4 months old when my parents moved from Ohio to Ashland, Kentucky
where my father established his veterinary practice. I grew up on Algonquin Avenue, known as the
Indian Reservation because of street names.
Many in our neighborhood were of the Jewish faith. The Josselson’s lived next door, the Polinski
and Korros and Stones nearby. My
earliest memories include my mother saying she thought she may have Jewish
ancestry. World War II, though over, was
a vivid memory with many still living with fear and prejudice.
My
maternal grandfather, who I adored, Howard Clayton Feyler, died when I was
eight years old in 1957.[i] As I grew up mother shared several stories
that she remembered. Mother kept a small
box with post cards and photographs that Dessie Clayton Feyler saved after husband
Edward Lee Feyler’s death in 1900.[ii] [iii]
Edward Lee was a jeweler in Portsmouth, Ohio who had, according to family been
born in Budapest, came to America and married Dessie in Bigelow Methodist
Church in Portsmouth, Ohio.
Howard Clayton Feyler
The
postcards were to Dessie and son Howard from cousin Hajnalka Feiler, uncle
Alfred (who coincidentally was a veterinarian), and one cherished postal note
and photograph of Alfred and Lee’s father Armin from Temesvar. The photograph of Armin Feiler seemed to show
him wearing a yarmulke but was a little difficult to ascertain or could be a
shadow on the back of his head. As
mother would go through these treasure’s she often spoke of her father standing
in the dining room with tears in his eyes saying “we have no more family” and
then destroying some papers.
Along
with the story, mother, Mary Helen Feyler Martin, would also pull out a picture
of her and sister Betty holding rag dolls that they were given as young
children mailed from Hungary. After
I was married mother sat down and said that she had another memory to share
with me. She came home one day to find
Mr. Shapiro talking with her mother on the front porch[iv]. As she approached, she heard him say
“Katherine when are you going to tell her about …Jews?” She did not catch every word and her mother
immediately told her to get in the house. Mr. Shapiro was a good friend of the family
so the interaction puzzled her. When she
asked later what they were talking about she was told it was nothing to concern
herself with.
Mother
and Betty both said they were told their grandfather talked about going to
Vienna to the Opera and were extremely educated. They based the education factor because the
family always corresponded in English. Betty thought that Edward was his way of
having an American sounding name but always was referred to as Lee. Betty
remembered a story that her grandfather had even been to Egypt. She wrote an essay in school about the Egypt
story and the teacher contacted her father questioning its truth. He verified the story. And there was one last little mysterious
Feyler family tidbit. Grandmother Dessie
tucked a small slip of paper in her bible giving the ages of deaths of Lee’s
parents, grandparents, sisters and brothers but not listing any names nor exact
dates. That piece of paper is another
mystery. Dessie knew at least some of
their names because she corresponded with them.
Why didn’t she put their names down?
Mother
and Betty were totally convinced they had no other living Feyler
relatives. I was starting out on a
genealogy quest for this branch of family before computers were a household
word with just a small box of postcards, pictures and a
slip of paper
with no names or dates. I was determined to find out what happened
to Hajnalka, her husband and two sons whom I felt like I knew personally from
reading and rereading those treasures.
We
have a beautiful picture of great grand uncle Alfred Feiler in Military uniform
taken in Temesvar in 1899. Temesvar
started my worldwide geography and pre-war boundary lesson. An article in the Portsmouth, Ohio local
newspaper stated Edward’s young brother
Alfred, was a captain of the first Hussar Regiment, Hungarian Army stationed in
Temesvar. Temesvar is now in Romania. Father, Armin’s correspondence and photograph
to grandson, Howard, was also from Temesvar marking the street where he and an
aunt named Tame lived. With maps I
followed Alfred’s daughter Hajnalka’s journey after marriage, through World War
I and the birth of two sons Alfredi and
Sandor. She lived in Poszony, Rajka,
Hungary and Hegyshalom.
In
1926 she wrote to her Aunt Dessie, in America, sending not only pictures of her
sons and home but stating “the Spring …again to Komarom to the grave of my poor
papa…please write me soon my dear aunt…”
Pinpointing Komorom as Czechoslovakia I wrote the Embassy. Nearly a year
later I received a letter and death record for Alfred to share with my mother
who wanted to know more about the family. It would be the first sad information
I would share with her. The document
showed he had changed his name from Feiler to Faltenyi and took his own life in
December 1919.[v]
In
1939 Hajnalka continued to write Aunt Dessie, this time stating her sons were
studying Law. I spent hours trying in vain
to locate her or either of the two sons, hopefully still living, through law
directories. It would be many more years before the Central database of Shoah
Victims Yad Vashem was created and internet research of actual documents began
to surface. This time as I showed mother
the information both of us had tears streaming down our faces. Hajnalka Feiler Richter a resident of Gyor es
Pozsony, Hungary along with her husband, mother, and mother-in-law all died in
1944 at Auschwitz in Poland. But
through tears I also realized that the information for the database had been
submitted and signed by Sandor Richter!
That document led me to Vienna and in 2005 I made contact with Sandor’s son named
for his father. By 2005 my mother’s mind was clouding with
the disease of Alzheimer’s and I am not
sure if she understand she has living cousins.
Sandor wrote:
My
father (Sandor Richter sr received your letter …does not speak English …. (... We were
really moved while reading your letter, and I would like to let you know our
family's saga beginning from the point where the information flow…. My father
and his brother Alfred were conscripted to forced labour to the Hungarian army.
My grandparents Imre Richter and Hajnalka and Hajnalka's mother Ilona were
deported in MAY 1944 to Auschwitz where they were killed right after arrival.
Alfred got to the concentration camp Mauthausen but he survived and returned to
Hungary. My father deserted from the Hungarian army and was captured by the
Russians. Though he was only forced labour unit of the Hungarian army he was
sent as a prisoner of war to the Ural mountains where he spent four years
before allowed to return to Hungary. ....I do not
know too much about my grand grand father Alfred Feiler. We have a newspaper
article written by him still before the first world war and published in a
provincial newspaper. He was a veterinarian and his daughter Hajnalka married
my grandfather Imre, who also was a veterinarian (a sort of genetic
predetermination?...) According to collective family memory Alfred committed
suicide after WWI because he got so depressed that Hungary lost the war and two
thirds of the country's territory was attached to successor states of the
Austrian- Hungarian Monarchy. Allegedly he jumped from the bridge in
Komarom...into the Danube river. ..
My
father Sandor and his brother Alfred (in the family he was called Fredi) had to
find their life in post WWII Hungary. Both of them left Gyor where they spent
their youth and where their parents house was traceless destroyed by a bomb in
the last days of the war. They moved to Budapest. More exactly, my father
returned from the Soviet Union to Budapest). Fredi became clerk at a firm where
he spent all his working years before he was pensioned. My father had more
ambitions and learned book-keeping in crash courses and came to leading
positions at various firms int he textile trade...a couple of members of the
broader family left Hungary but our narrow family chose to remain. My father is
now 87 years old, copes with all the problems ...He was very delighted to read
your letter ...brother Peter is physicist, head of the Department of Atomic
Physics at the Technical University in Budapest. He regularly visits American
universities .... ...Sandor
While
the story is extremely sad, I was heartened to know and celebrated having
cousins. Sandor and I still communicate.
Using genealogy methodology, I continued researching my great grandfather
Edward Lee Feyler in America. I eventually located Edward Lee Feyler’s
naturalization stating he was a native of Hungary but showing that his intent
had been filed in Marion County, Indiana.
The document also distinctly marked out Feiler and changed to Feyler. [vi]
City directories show that in 1884 Leopold Feiler lived in heart of the Jewish
community in Indianapolis with occupation jeweler. He was brought to Portsmouth, Scioto County,
Ohio y Charles Cohen who had a jewelry store on 2nd Street. Within a short time Feyler owned his own
store on 2nd street.
Eventually
research provided migration information.
Leopold Feiler[vii],
a watchmaker embarked on the ship Coblenz from Hamburg 10 August 1883.[viii] This document shows he was born in Kenti,
Galicia.[ix] Coblenz sailed to Leith and on the 9th
August Leopold embarked from Leith to New York in steerage on the ship Ethiopia[x].
It is possible that a Jewish organization in New York guided him to
Indianapolis.
Edward Leopold “Lee” Feiler/Feyler
Documenting
2nd great grandfather Armin Feiler, as with all the European
research on this family was challenging.
Besides ordering microfilms in foreign language mother helped to
financially hire several foreign researchers.
The first took our money, the 2nd found no records. A third researcher was more helpful. Because of the wonderful records provided by
LDS and a frame by frame search I located the funeral record in Hungary listing
children and grandchildren including Howard in America![xi] With the miracle of the internet the 3rd
researcher sent me a photograph of Armin’s tombstone in the Jewish Cemetery in
Temesvar. This would be the confirmation
that indeed we did have more than a whisper of Jewish ancestry. The tombstone written in Hebrew on one side
and German on the other stated Armin aka HirschTsvi Feiler was a Super
controller for the Hungarian Royal Railroads, son of Karpel Feiler.
Jewish Temple
Cemetery, Temesvar, Romania
From
paper to microfilm to computer. I have
witnessed research emerge and change.
DNA has opened more doors. My
mother’s DNA supports her whispered stories with ethnicity of European Jewish
at 23% and mine at 13%. As more and more
test those values may change. DNA matches have found new connections. Karpel and wife Adel Hupper Feiler had at
least four children. Theresie Feiler
Krieger migrated to Vienna and her grandchildren to New York and England. We now have contact with her Billing
descendent in England. Fanny Feiler
Nacher died in Moravia and at least one grandchild died in a concentration
camp.
The
journey and story is never over. My hope
is that someone will add to the story and will continue where I
leave off.
[i]
West Virginia Death Certificate 57 009658, Division of Culture and History,
Charleston, West Virginia
[ii]
Ohio Scioto Death Register, page 60. Courthouse, Portsmouth, Ohio.
[iii]
Feyler, Leopold, Portsmouth Correspondent, 29 June 1900.
[iv]
822 Gay Street, Portsmouth, Ohio
[v]
Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, Ministerstvo Vnutra. Statny Oblastny Archiv V
Nitre.
[vi]
Ohio, Scioto Porbate Court, Naturalization. Courthouse, Portsmouth, OH.
[vii]
This compiler has always wondered if he was named for Leopold II Emperor and
King of Hungary.
[viii]
Staatsarchiv Hamburg. Hamburg Passenger Lists, 1850-1934 ,
373-7 I, VIII B 1 Band 055, page 967, Microfilm S_13142; lds film 1049069
[ix] Kenti
town in Oswiecim Co lesser Poland Voivodeship
[x] Church
of Latter Day Saints LDS, "FamilySearch," database, FamilySearch
(www.familysearch.org:, "United States Germans to America Index, 1850-1897.
[xi] Church
of Latter Day Saints LDS, "FamilySearch," database, FamilySearch
(www.familysearch.org: Hungary Funeral Notices, 1840-1990 ), image 889.
