THE AMAZING COUSIN I
NEVER MET
compiled by Teresa Martin Klaiber, Nov. 2019
I
cannot count the times people have said to me they have no remaining
relatives. If you accept the fact that
your immediate family are your only relatives then the statement could be true. Both my mother and aunt believed they had no
family left in Europe and certainly no male Feyler/Feiler family members in
America. They loved that the family
talked about music and Opera in Vienna. As
children they visualized the elegance not seeing the tragedy and struggles that
were occurring in the family. Oral history has a way of getting misconstrued
while holding clues and truths. Stories have a way of evolving with
genealogical research.
After
the death of my second great grandmother, Armin Feiler married Josefa Ehrmann
in Vienna.[i] Their son Gustav was born and married in
Vienna. A daughter. Dr. Margaret P.
Feiler was born there in 1906[ii]. In 1940 Margaret managed to escape via train
and ship aiding children to freedom coming to New York where Ehrmann relatives
had already settled in Manhattan. Deposits
could be made to pay passage and arrange some transports with assistance of the
American Jewish Joint Distribution Center based in New York. In 1941 Margaret deposited funds for the ship
Mouzinho from Lisbon to New York for her parents, Gustav and Johanna Wipper
Feiler.
Gustav
lived first in Manhattan then East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. From 1941 until his death in 1960, we had
Feiler family living within driving distance without ever knowing. Since Gustav’s half-brother, Leopold died in
1900 in Portsmouth, Ohio he probably did not realize there were still cousins who
would have greeted them with open arms.
I
got to know Margaret posthumously through her closest and dearest friend, Mary
Kerrick who was executor of Margaret’s estate in 2002. Mary and I have had several telephone
conversations. Margaret was blessed to
have such a wonderful friend.
Margaret
went to work for the Joint Distribution Center, in New York. Among the archive’s depositor cards are more
deposits made by Margaret assisting others. The Holocaust Memorial Museum
includes an oral history interview with Margaret describing her work with
emigration issues.[iii]
In
the interview she tells how she went to Lisbon, Portugal with the children
before arriving in New York where there were arrangements for their care.
“Dr. Feiler states that "she is one of those people" who when she came to the US from Vienna never talked about her "tribulations" and how she got out. "I always hated to talk about it." Says how her parents also never talked about it, and how they figured that everyone around them had had a similar experience, so there was no sense in "rehashing it." "I don't think people are interested in this... Recounts how she received a cable from her parents in February 1941 that the Poland transports were starting and to deposit 400 dollars. How she got the money from the second cousin of her father. How she took the money to the Joint to send to Vienna and how she ran into the Joint's Executive Vice Chairman and how she informed him that the deportations to Poland had begun and how he replied "Well, if they deport them, they deport them." Dr. Feiler says that she, too, did not know that "they would exterminate them," that at the time there was no Auschwitz yet, no indication "that they intended to liquidate everybody." She only knew that it would be terrible to be in a camp somewhere in Poland,[iv]
Mary Kerrick says Margaret never liked to go
on a ship because of seasickness again.
Margaret would make several trips back to Vienna while working for JDC
during peace time.
When
she retired Margaret moved to Pocono Pines, Pennsylvania where she had renovated
a cottage that she said reminded her of home.
She and friend Mary loved to knit and do needlepoint together. It is obvious she was a very strong woman.
She lost both her legs, due to illness, after retiring and continued to live
alone as long as she could. Mary helped
care for her. Margaret left her personal
effects to Kerrick and the residue to the American Jewish Joint Distribution
Committee. Kerrick in turn had an
auction of the personal effects and those funds were also given to JDC. She died in the Jewish Home of Eastern
Pennsylvania at Scranton. Mary Kerrick scattered
her ashes, as requested in a lovely field between their two properties where
they would go for picnics and read.
[i] GenTeam,
Die Genealogische Datenbank. https://www.genteam.at/index.php, Index of the
Jewish Records of Vienna and Lower Austria. 1879.
[ii]
Six years after the death of Edward Lee (Leopold) Feyler in America.
[iii] Feiler,
Margaret. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Oral Interview. Accession
#2014.537.2/RG Number: RG-50.862.0001
[iv] ibid
