Handkerchief

Simche Leib (Leo) Beller was born on March 20, 1901, in Bubrika, Poland (now Bobrka, Ukraine). In 1915, he moved to Vienna. In 1928, Simcha married Mina Tennenbaum, who had been born and raised in Austria. The couple had one son, Paul, who was born on November 20, 1931. In March 1938, Nazi Germany annexed Austria. Legislation was enacted to strip Jews of their rights. On November 9-10, 1938, the Kristallnacht pogrom destroyed most of the synagogues in Vienna and vandalized Jewish businesses and homes. There were mass arrests of Jewish males. In the spring of 1939, fearful of the future, Leo and Mina sent Paul to the United States with a group of children gathered by Gilbert and Eleanor Kraus, now known as the "50 children." Paul was taken to Pennsylvania, where he spent the summer at the Brith Sholom summer camp. He then spent a year living with the Amram family on their farm in Feasterville, PA. In September 1939, Germany invaded Poland, sparking World War II. Mina obtained a visa for the US and left Vienna in early 1940, joining several members of her family and reuniting with Paul. Leo had never taken Austrian citizenship, and as a Jew and Polish native, was officially stateless. He managed to evade arrest at one point by having his appendix removed, an unnecessary procedure that kept him in the hospital for several days. At the American consulate, he was denied a visa on the grounds that he had tuberculosis, which he did not. In the spring of 1940, he sailed down the Danube to Bratislava in German annexed Czechoslovakia on the Patronka and was interned nearby. In August 1940, he left on the Helios, then transferred to the Atlantic for the trip to British ruled Palestine, where the ship's passengers planned to attempt an illegal entry. They witnessed the explosion of the Patria and were turned away from Palestine. They sailed instead for Mauritius, arriving in late December. In Mauritius, Leo was interned in the Beau Bassin prison. The war ended in May 1945. Leo was released in August 1945, and allowed to enter Palestine. In 1946, he emigrated to the United States to join Mina and Paul. Paul later married Glenda and they have three children.