Peter Feigl papers

Peter Feigl was born Klaus Feigl in 1929 in Berlin to mechanical engineer Ernst Feigl (1888-1942) and Agnes Feigl (nee Bornstein, 1904-1942). The Feigls moved to Prague in 1936, Vienna in 1937, and then Brussels in 1938. Ernst was arrested following the German invasion of Belgium, and Peter and his mother left for France with Agnes’ stepmother, Flora Bornstein. They were briefly interned at Gurs, tried to escape to Spain, and ended up at Auch (Gers). Meanwhile Ernst had been interned at St. Cyprien and Gurs but was released on medical leave. While Peter was attending a summer camp at Château Montéléone in Condom (Gers) in 1942, his parents were deported via Le Vernet and Drancy to Auschwitz and killed. Peter’s caregivers arranged to send him to the United States, but the children’s transport was cancelled following the Allied landing in North Africa. In January 1943 he was moved to the Les Grillons children’s home in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon (Haute-Loire) under the guidance of Daniel Trocmé. In September he was moved to College Champollion, a boarding school in Figeac (Lot). In May 1944, the Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants (OSE) arranged for his escape into Switzerland. He immigrated to the United States in July 1946 with the help of relatives who had escaped in 1941.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Peter Feigl

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Peter Ernst Feigl

Funding Note: The cataloging of this collection has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.

Peter Feigl donated the Peter Feigl papers to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1992, 1995, 2008, and 2014. Accessions previously cataloged as 1992.175, 1995.A.0965, and 2008.391.1 have been incorporated into this collection.