Mandler-Handl family. Collection

Fritz Mandler was born on 27 August 1907 in Vienna, Austria. He mastered the skills of multiple professions such as plumber and electrician, with a specialty in motive power (installation of dynamos and electric motors). Fritz married Rosa Handl, born on 9 May 1909, also in Vienna. Their son Heinz alias Henri Mandler was born in the same city on 19 June 1938. When the family fled from Austria to Belgium a few weeks later, Fritz Mandler took with him the tool bag he used for his job. Fritz, Rosa and Henri settled in Brussels. They were housed for some time at the Marneffe refugee centre before returning to the Belgian capital where they still resided when Nazi-Germany invaded Belgium on 10 May 1940. During the first days of the war the Belgian authorities arrested several thousand ‘suspects’, persons who the state thought to be possible Nazi spies and collaborators. Among these suspects were, however, many Jewish refugees that recently arrived from Germany and Austria. Fritz Mandler was among those arrested. He was interned in several camps in southern France before he was able to escape in March 1942. Fritz returned to Brussels and started working as an electrician-contractor. On 21 November 1942 Fritz, his wife Rosa, Rosa’s brother Hans Handl and Rosa’s sister-in-law Martha Klein were arrested. When brought to the Dossin barracks Fritz took with him his tool bag. Although all four of them were first assigned to transport XVIII, Fritz and Rosa were taken off the deportation list not long before the train’s departure when Fritz presented himself as a man of many practical professions, which made him useful in the eyes of the German camp administrators. Fritz Mandler was then added to the Werkleute (employee-prisoners) as a handyman, performing all sorts of tasks such as maintaining the plumbing and electricity, repairing brickwork, performing small construction assignments, etc. After a while the camp administration made him head of the Hofarbeiter, the Jewish maintenance workers at the camp. He became known as Negus because of his black, curly hair and dark skin. Fritz’s wife Rosa Handl also received a position in the camp and was thus exempted from deportation too. She became a member of the laundry service for the SS officers. A month before their arrest, Fritz and Rosa had entrusted their son Henri to Auguste and Raymonde Dehaen-Berteau in Courcelles, who hid the toddler at their family home. Raymonde took her own son Guy, who had the same age, and Henri Mandler on a trip to Mechelen where they visited Rosa at the Dossin barracks. Rosa was terrified that Henri would recognize her and that her son would not be allowed to leave after the visit, but Henri, just a small child, did not and he left the camp again with Raymonde and Guy. As head of the Hofarbeiter, Fritz Mandler was allowed to leave the Dossin barracks to go and buy tools and various supplies in Mechelen, under supervision of an SS-soldier or accompanied by another Jewish worker. At least at one occasion Fritz made the trip to Courcelles to visit his son Henri at his hiding place. The exact circumstances that made this visit possible are unknown, but Fritz’s wife Rosa stayed behind in the Dossin barracks to assure Fritz’s return to Mechelen. While working at the Dossin barracks Fritz Mandler performed multiple acts of resistance. During his trips into town he sometimes purchased extra tools in secret and passed them on to Jewish people designated for deportation so they could undertake an escape attempt. On 27 April 1943 an escapee of transport XX who was caught again declared that Fritz Mandler had provided him with tools to flee the train. Fritz was immediately removed from his position as head of the Hofarbeiter and his name was added to the deportation list of transport XXI. His head was shaved bald and he was put in the Stehzelle, a cell where the prisoner could not sit or lie down, and which Fritz ironically was just finishing building. The punishment lasted for seventeen days, until Rosa succeeded in persuading camp commander Johannes Frank to take Fritz off of the deportation list. Frank had already released Fritz from the Stehzelle and also granted Rosa’s request, possibly because she argued that the escapee could have stolen the tools from Fritz. Fritz Mandler and his wife Rosa Handl were held at the Dossin barracks until the liberation of Mechelen in the night of 3 September 1944. On the morning of 4 September 1944 Fritz Mandler opened the gates of the barracks, thus setting free the Jewish detainees left at the camp. He also picked the locks of the cells, where three people were still held captive. In early 1945 Fritz and Rosa were reunited with their son Henri and later that year with Rosa’s repatriated brother Hans Handl whose wife Martha Klein had not survived deportation. The family returned to Brussels where Fritz continued to work as a handyman, using the tool bag he carried with him from Vienna and which he had used at the Dossin barracks as well. Henri remained close with the Dehaen-Berteau family that had hidden him. In 2008 the family received the title of Righteous among the Nations. Fritz Mandler passed away on 6 May 1981, Rosa Handl on 21 July 1991.

On 28 June 2022, Henri Mandler kindly donated the original objects and digital copies of the photos in this collection to Kazerne Dossin. On 6 July 2022 he added the original written testimony by his uncle Hans Mandl.

Henri (Heinz) Mandler, 2022