My maternal grandfather was born in Meidling, Vienna and is buried in Kefar Sava, Israel. It’s an ironic outcome for someone whose religious identitiy and affiliations were never altogether understood or even known. In between Vienna and Kefar Sava he spent some time in Dachau Concentration Camp and, interned again, on the island of Mauritius. I never knew him.
I arranged with the nice gentleman in the picture, for a fee, to renovate my grandfather’s grave. I hope you think, like me, he did it nicely.
Deported and interned: on December 5, 1940, 1,580 Jewish men, women and children were taken from the Atlit detention center near Haifa, transferred on to two ships, and deported to the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. There is a list of internees here (Emil is number 630).
You can read, “From Palestine to jail in Mauritius: When Britain deported 1,580 Shoah refugees” here.
Please don’t forget to see Emil’s letters from Dachau Concentration Camp, where he was taken on 9 November 1938, Kristallnacht, here.