Kollonitschgasse 12 (laid in 2011)
Berta Reininger
The end of a large family
Wilhelm Reininger, born November 15, 1850/56/60 in Kobersdorf, died 1921,
Berta Reininger, née Kerpel, born April 8 or 9, 1867, in Mattersdorf (Mattersburg),
Children: Hugo (*1892), Hermann (*1894), Ludwig and Desider (1900), Paula (?), Therese (*1891), and Elisabeth Ella (*1898).
Berta Reininger was deported from Vienna to Theresienstadt on January 5, 1943, where she died on August 20, 1944.
Berta lived with her son Hugo and his family at Kollonitschgasse 12. Hugo ran a wine business and a distillery. He was a well-known and respected figure in Wiener Neustadt. Within the Jewish community, he held important functions: for several years, with a short interruption, he was a member of the board of the Jewish Community (IKG), and from 1936 he served as its last president (chairman).
The middle of his three daughters was named Therese. She married Heinrich Reininger in Baden; Heinrich’s father Israel was the brother of Wilhelm, Berta’s husband. After their marriage, Therese and Heinrich lived in Neunkirchen and had two daughters, Trude and Martha.
While Martha, at 19 years old in December 1938, was halted in Yugoslavia in an illegal transport by ship (the Kladovo transport) to Palestine—then handed over by the Germans to an unknown location and ultimately murdered—Trude was able to survive. Half a year before the outbreak of the war, she had the opportunity to go to England as a domestic servant and work there.
Trude later recalled that the family of Hugo Reininger had employed a governess who was sympathetic to the Nazis, though this only became apparent in a dramatic situation. Shortly after the Anschluss, when Nazi marches were passing through the streets, the governess placed Hugo’s two children, Wilhelm (11) and Kurt (6), on the windowsill of the open window at Kollonitschgasse 12 and said to them: “Boys, shout Heil!” The parents dismissed her immediately thereafter.
In 1942 Heinrich and Berta, Elisabeth and Siegfried attempted together with their mother to cross the border to Hungary illegally. Because of their mother’s advanced age, they could only progress slowly. The smuggler proposed hiding her in the forest to come back for her later. When he returned, she was gone. Presumably, she had been discovered, returned to Vienna, and deported.
On January 5, 1943, she was deported from Vienna to Theresienstadt, where she died on August 20, 1944.
Heinrich and Berta, as well as Elisabeth and Siegfried, were sent to a labor camp after the German army invaded Hungary. Heinrich and Berta survived until they were liberated by the Red Army and were able in 1946 to emigrate to England to join their daughter Trude. Elisabeth and Siegfried were deported to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where they too survived.
Her granddaughter Trude (today Trude Bibring) lived until only a few years ago in Netanya on the sea in Israel and was, to her knowledge, probably the only one left of the once large Reininger family.
Helmuth Eiwen, based on an interview with Trude Bibring (granddaughter of Berta Reininger), supplemented with “Lebenslinien” by Werner Sulzgruber.
Photo: Berta Reininger surrounded by her children and their spouses (© Trude Bibring, Israel)