Neunkirchner Straße 33 (laid in 2022)
Gustav and Hilda Breuer
The Breuer Family – Execution of the parents and their young sons
Gustav Breuer, born March 17, 1893, in Mattersburg,
wife Hilda Schön, born July 11, 1904, in Uherský Brod, and
sons Theodor, born 1929, and Walter, born 1931.
In the course of the Kladovo transport, Gustav was murdered in 1941 in Zasavica near Šabac, and Hilda in 1942/43 in Šabac, Yugoslavia. Both sons were deported on September 14, 1942, to Maly Trostinec and murdered there on September 18, 1942.
Among the members of the extended Breuer family, who only settled in Wiener Neustadt in the 1920s after Burgenland was annexed to Austrian territory in 1921, was Gustav Breuer, a travelling salesman and commercial clerk. In 1923, he first lived at the home of David and Franziska Breuer in Ungargasse 6, and subsequently always at addresses where relatives (Breuer or Koppel families) were registered.
In 1927, Gustav married Hilda Schön, who also came from Hungary. In 1928, they moved to Neunkirchnerstraße 39/1/4, in 1929 their first son Theodor was born, in 1931 their second son Walter, and in 1935 they moved again into another nearby house, at Neunkirchnerstraße 33/1/3. Gustav earned the family’s income first as a commercial traveller and later as a merchant. Their co-ownership stake in the Breuer printing business added existential security in the difficult years of the economic crisis.
The family of four managed to remain in their rental apartment on Neunkirchnerstraße relatively long in 1938 compared to many other Jewish tenants elsewhere, who were quickly evicted. Eventually, they lived in a house at Rosengasse 8, where Friedrich Breuer and his family had moved in September 1938, followed in succession by nearly all members of the extended Breuer family—at least for a time.
During the “Kristallnacht” pogrom, the family was arrested. Gustav was deported to Dachau concentration camp on November 12, where he was detained for some time. The family later briefly stayed at Rembrandtstraße 34/14 in Vienna. Nazi authorities registered their “departure to Uruguay,” but in reality, the family likely tried to flee to Czechoslovakia.
All members of Gustav Breuer’s immediate family became victims of the Shoah: Gustav in 1941 in Zasavica near Šabac, Hilda in 1942/43 in Šabac, and both children on September 14, 1942, when they were deported with “Transport 41” from Vienna to Maly Trostinec, where they were executed upon arrival on September 18, 1942.
Werner Sulzgruber