Julius Mehrer

Julius Mehrer was born on 18 July 1908 in Lemberg, the Austrian empire (today Lviv, Ukraine), as the youngest child of Mozes Josef Mehrer and Krajndel alias Karoline Hitnik. His older brother, named Zygfryd, had been born in Lviv on 3 June 1904. At the outbreak of the First World War the Mehrer family presumably fled from Polish Galicia to Vienna, to escape the Russian troops. Julius’ father Josef passed away there in 1915. In 1920 the family shortly returned to Poland, after which Julius settled in Vienna permanently in 1923. His brother Zygfryd also resided in the Austrian capital, but, in 1931, he emigrated to The Hague, the Netherlands, where Zygfryd would survive the Second World War and where he would pass away on 7 June 1950. Their mother Krajndel remained in Lviv after 1920. Her fate remains unknown to us. Julius Mehrer became a staff member at one of Vienna’s Arbeiterbüchereien (Workers' Libraries of the City of Vienna). On 3 September 1933 he married Stella Bellak, who was born on 21 February 1913 in Vienna and who also worked for the Arbeiterbüchereien. The couple lived at Zirkusgasse 23 in Vienna’s second district, where Julius’ mother-in-law Rosa Bellak-Ehrenstein and brother-in-law Otto Bellak and his family also lived. After the Anschluss on 13 March 1938, all Jewish staff members of the Arbeiterbüchereien were fired. Julius Mehrer was among those who lost their job. His wife Stella had already left the institute in 1936. In May 1938 the couple filled out emigration documents with the Israelitischen Kultusgemeinde Wien [Vienna Jewish Community]. Being threatened with arrest by the Gestapo and internment in a concentration camp, Julius and Stella Mehrer-Bellak subsequently fled from Vienna to Belgium, illegally crossing the German-Belgian border near Aachen on 20 October 1938. They were hoping to emigrate to the United States and received financial support from the Jewish Ezra aid committee while awaiting their affidavit. Upon their arrival in Belgium Julius and Stella first settled at Lange Kievitstraat 67 in Antwerp, but then relocated to Van Immerseelstraat 24 in Antwerp where they still resided when Nazi-Germany invaded Belgium on 10 May 1940. Julius and Stella Mehrer-Bellak obeyed the first anti-Jewish decree and registered themselves in the municipal Jewish register mid-December 1940. On 9 January 1941 the couple was forced to relocate to Limburg, as were several thousand other non-Belgians (mostly Jews) living in Antwerp. The reason for this forced resettlement remains unknown. Julius and Stella arrived in the municipality of Winterslag, but then transferred to the municipality of As. In August 1941, they were allowed to leave Limburg and they subsequently made home at Avenue de la Reine 9 in Schaerbeek, Brussels. After settling in Brussels Julius and Stella were forced to obey newly introduced anti-Jewish decrees. Their IDs were stamped with the words “Jood-Juif” in Spring 1941 and they became members of the Association of Jews in Belgium in Spring 1942. At the end of May 1942 the yellow star of David became obligatory. Earlier that month an anti-Jewish decree introduced forced labour for Jews in Belgium. Hundreds of Jewish men moved from Brussels and Antwerp to Charleroi, where they hoped to be employed in the war industry so they could not be claimed for forced labour elsewhere. One of them was Julius Mehrer who relocated to Rue du Mouton Blanc 4 in Charleroi in late June. However, on 29 July 1942 Organisation Todt (OT) distributed 500 ‘work invitations’ to Jewish men in the Charleroi area. Among those that presented themselves at the OT offices on 31 July 1942 was Julius Mehrer. He and the other men present (about 200 to 300) were arrested on the spot by the Feldgendarmerie and were immediately taken to the Charleroi-Sud train station from where they were sent to Northern France the same day. Julius performed forced labour at the labour camps Dannes and Condette, before being deported from Northern France to Auschwitz-Birkenau via Transport XVI on 31 October 1942. Julius Mehrer was murdered there on 11 January 1943. When Julius relocated to Charleroi, his wife Stella Bellak stayed behind in the Belgian capital. She first moved to Place Ernest Solvay 17 in Ixelles, Brussels, and settled, in February 1944, at Avenue Jean Van Hoorenbeeck 192 in Auderghem, Brussels, which was the location of an elderly home run by the Association of Jews in Belgium where Stella worked as a kitchen aid. She stayed there until mid-October 1944, a few weeks after the liberation of the Belgian capital. In September 1948 she emigrated to Israel in the company of Henoch Russak, whom she married. They had children and grandchildren. In October 2021 stumbling stones were laid for Julius Mehrer, his mother-in-law Rosa Bellak-Ehrenstein and his brother-in-law Otto Bellak and his family at Zirkusgasse 23 in Vienna.

Amos Russak, grandson of Julius Mehrer's widow Stella Bellak and her second husband Henoch Russak, kindly provided Kazerne Dossin with a digital copy of the items in this collection. Contact with mister Russak was established thanks to the kind intervention of Heimo Gruber, biographer of Julius Mehrer.

Amos Russak, 2022