Renate Fleischer Fajer collection

Kurt Fleischer (1891-1951) was born on November 11, 1891 in Berent, Prussia (today: Koscierzyna, Poland), son of Dr. Hans Fleischer, a dentist. Kurt Fleischer was a soldier in the German Army during WWI. He was wounded in action; he received two Iron Crosses for his service. Ilse Kroner (1904- ) was born in Posen, Germany (today: Poznan, Poland) on September 28, 1904. She was the oldest child of Else Bieber Kroner (b. October 14, 1879) and Robert Kroner. Her siblings were Heinz Joachim Kroner (b. April 27, 1906) and Margot Kroner (b. August 8, 1910). The Kroner family lived in Posen, but after the peace treaty after World War I, Posen became part of Poland, and the family moved to Breslau, Germany. Ilse Kroner and Kurt Fleischer married in 1936. Kurt was a partner in an engineering company which produced greenhouses. Kurt’s sister, Paula Holzer, immigrated to Brazil in 1938. Kurt and Ilse Fleischer’s daughter, Renate Fleischer (later Renate Fajer) was born on March 22, 1938 in Breslau, Germany. The family obtained Brazilian visas and emigrated from Germany in March 1939. The Fleischer family settled in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Kurt Fleischer, an entrepreneur and inventor, opened a factory producing nylon raincoats and shower curtains. Kurt established a synagogue for German Jews, which was located on the ground floor in the Fleischer family’s house. In 1944, Kurt was hospitalized for eight months after an old war injury was became infected. As a result, his leg was amputated. On December 18, 1951, the Fleischer’s factory burned down, and Kurt died of injuries sustained in the fire. He died in his daughter’s arms. A few years later Renate and her mother moved to Campinas where her uncle, Ernesto Boas owned a business. At a WIZO dance, Renate Fleischer met her future husband, Dr. Abram Fajer. They married on September 1, 1956 in the Portuguese Synagogue in Sao Paulo. The wedding ring used in their ceremony was handed down by Renate’s maternal grandmother, Else Kroner, to Renate’s mother, Ilse Fleischer. In 1963, Renate and Abram Fajer immigrated to the United States and in Maryland. They are the parents of three children: Debra Fajer-Smith, a lawyer; Simone Fajer Manor, M.D., a vascular surgeon in Haifa, Israel; and Salo Kurt Fajer, Chief Strategy Officer of NitroSecurity in Virginia. Dr. Abram Fajer was born in 1926 in Piaski, Poland. He completed his postgraduate fellowship in Scotland. Abram Fajer, M.D. Ph.D. is an endocrinologist who taught at the Department of Physiology in the School of Medicine of the University of Maryland in Baltimore Margot Kroner, obtained a visas as a nurse and immigrated to England in 1937. Heinz Kroner married Susi Wertenberg (b. May 15, 1915). According to the German census from 1939, the couple lived on Freiburger Strasse 42. Susi Kroner immigrated to England. Elsa Kroner was arrested on February 27, 1943. Elsa Kroner was deported from Breslau in March 1943. She likely perished at Auschwitz concentration camp. Her son, Heinz Kroner, who contracted hepatitis, was likely deported to Auschwitz in March 1943. Before his deportation Heinz wrote a letter, and gave it, and other letters from his parents, to his German neighbor, Martha Gunther, who sent them to Ilse Fleischer in Brazil. According to the records of Buna – Monowitz camp (Auschwitz III) Heinz was admitted to the hospital on October 29, 1943 and he was operated on. It does not mention a release or death day.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Renate Fleischer Fajer

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

Renate Fleischer Fajer donated the Renate Fleischer Fajer collection to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2010.