Wilhelm Beigel was born on May 18, 1927, in Vilna, Poland, (Vilnius, Lithuania) to Ferdinand, born on June 25, 1899, in Lemberg, Austria (L’viv, Ukraine), and Liza Kowarsky, born on October 20, 1904, in Vilna. Ferdinand was an officer in the Polish Army. Liza’s parents, Zelik (d. 1935) and Musia Kowarsky owned the Hotel Bristol, the largest hotel in Vilna. The Beigel family lived there with 14 extended family members. Wilhelm's immediate family was not particularly observant, attending synagogue only for the high holidays, but his grandparents were and Musia kept a kosher household. Wilhelm attended a Polish school where twice daily Catholic prayers were part of the curriculum. Wilhelm knew the prayers, but did not recite them and stood while the others kneeled. Wilhelm did not look Jewish and spoke Polish without an accent, but was called antisemitic names which sometimes led to fist fights. There was widespread anti-semitism in Vilna and it increased during the 1930s with the rise to power of the Nazi Party in Germany. There was a boycott on Jewish businesses, and business owners, including Zelik, were required to put their names on their storefronts to make enforcement easier.
When Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, Ferdinand’s regiment was deployed, but he remained in Vilna to attend to regiment business. In late September, under the terms of the German-Soviet pact, Vilna and eastern Poland were occupied by Soviet forces. Ferdinand attempted to escape; his vehicle was hit by a Soviet tank, fracturing his arm. He was interned in a Lithuanian hospital, but soon released. The Beigel family considered emigrating to the United States, where Liza’s three half brothers lived, but after the Soviets transferred control of Vilna to Lithuania in late October, they decided to stay. Lithuania was re-occupied by Soviet forced on June 15, 1940. Jewish businesses were nationalized, and political, cultural, and welfare organizations shut down. The family had to move into an apartment. Wilhelm attended a Russian school, Ferdinand worked as a bookkeeper and Liza as a waitress.
On June 22, 1941, Germany invaded Russian territory and occupied Vilna on June 24. The family watched from their garden as Vilna was bombed. The next day, Jews were required to wear a white, square cloth with a painted letter J inside a circle. Wilhelm’s aunt and mother embroidered the circle and J in silk and then went for a walk. They were arrested and brought to the barracks of regiment L27341 where they were told to remove and use their underwear to wash the floors and windows. They were ordered to return the next day as they were now the regiment’s cleaning women. The entire family soon worked for the regiment. On September 6, a Jewish ghetto was established. Before their forced relocation, the family hid their photo albums in the attic. Germans occupied their apartment and retained the family maid. Wilhelm worked in the regimental kitchen and stole food on delivery days and brought it back to the ghetto. In spring 1942, the regiment left. Ferdinand became chief of the ghetto prison and Liza again worked as a waitress. Wilhelm attended a Jewish technical school and worked in a machine shop. The family listened in secret to the radio and followed the war. During Aktions, when the Germans rounded up Jews for deportation, they hid in a secret cellar room.
On September 4, 1943, the Germans began to destroy the ghetto. It was surrounded by Latvian Schutzstaffel [SS] and Ferdinand was shot and killed while watching from a window. Wilhelm, in the hospital recovering from pleurisy, learned about this through a ghetto death announcement. On September 23, Wilhelm, Liza, and Musia were sent by Jacob Gens, head of the Jewish council, to the nearby Heereskraftfahrpark/Ost/562 (HKP) labor camp. Gens probably thought this would save them from deportation. Wilhelm worked as a machinist and Liza in the sewing shop. The rest of the family was sent to various camps or taken to Ponary forest and murdered.
In June 1944, the camp commander ordered the prisoners to be deported. Wilhelm decided to escape, and on June 30, he jumped out the machine shop window. He hid in the bushes and the next day walked to Vilna. He pretended to be Polish and used the name Wilhelm Bisowski. He returned to the family apartment; the Germans were gone and the maid remained, but she did not recognize him at first. He asked for a hat to hide his shaved head and she made him breakfast. Later that day, Wilhelm returned to the camp and got word to his mother and grandmother that he was alive. A former Polish officer and friend of Ferdinand’s gave Liza his contact information. Wilhelm contacted him and the man said Wilhelm could stay with him and got Wilhelm a job with a German field kitchen. The kitchen went to a concentration camp with 5,000 Polish civilian prisoners. The German captain learned that Wilhelm spoke German and made him camp interpreter. After 3 days, Wilhelm left and returned to the Polish officer’s house.
Vilna was liberated by the Soviet army in July 1944. Wilhelm went to the labor camp and learned that his mother and grandmother had been executed in Ponary forest on July 4. He returned to the apartment and retrieved the photos from the attic. In March 1945, he left for Łódź, Poland. In September 1945, with the help of Bricha, an underground organization that helped to smuggle Jews out of Europe, Wilhelm went to Munich, Germany. He was told not to keep any photos that might identify him as Jewish or Polish. He selected a few pictures then left the rest on a train between Katowice and Prague. He moved to Gailingen where he lived in the Dillingen an der Donau displaced persons camp and continued his education. He obtained a visa with the help of a maternal uncle in the US and arrived in New York on June 7, 1947, on the Marine Marlin from Bremen, Germany. He changed his name to William Begell. He married Esther Kessler, also from Vilna, and a survivor of several concentration camps. The couple had 2 children, who predeceased him. He was an engineer and a publisher of scholarly scientific materials; he co-founded or founded several firms, including Begell House Publishing. Esther, 77, died on June 21, 2003. William, 82, died in New York City on July 4, 2009.
Esther Kessler was born on May 16, 1926, in Bialystok, Poland, to Zelman and Masha Levin Kessler, who was born on January 2, 1898, in Bialystok, to Abraham and Tauba Goodman. She had a sister Elena. The family lived in Vilna, Poland, (Vilnius, Lithuania). On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. In late September, under the terms of the German-Soviet pact, Vilna and eastern Poland were occupied by Soviet forces who annexed the region in August 1940. On June 22, 1941, Germany invaded Lithuania and occupied Vilna.
On September 6, Esther and her mother were forced into the newly established Jewish ghetto. The Germans liquidated the ghetto in September 1943. Esther and Masha were deported to Kaiserwald concentration camp in Riga, Latvia, on September 23. In July or August 1944, Esther and Masha were transferred to Thorn, a subcamp of Stutthof concentration camp, in Germany. The women worked in an underground facility referred to as the fortress, where they repaired damaged copper cables for the German military. The thick cables were welded and then tested underwater. They were next deported to Bromberg, a subcamp of Stutthof. On January 24, 1945, Bromberg was evacuated, and the women were forced on a march through the snow toward Sachsenhausen concentration camp in Germany. They were liberated in January 1945, in Bromberg.
Esther and Masha emigrated to the United States in 1948. Elena also had survived and emigrated to the US. Esther met William Begell, who was from Vilna, and had survived the ghetto and escaped a labor camp. The couple married and had two children. Masha, age 74 died in Washington DC, in November 1972. Esther, age 77, died in New York City on June 21, 2003. William, age 82, died in New York, City on July 4, 2009.
