Harry Fendler

Location 
Crellestr. 42 und 42 a
Historical name
Bahnstraße 42 und 42a
District
Schöneberg
Stone was laid
March 2008
Born
31 January 1926 in Berlin
Deportation
on 19 February 1943 to Auschwitz
Murdered
15 March 1943 in Auschwitz
Harry Fendler, born on 31 January 1926 in Berlin, lived with his older brother Alfred and widowed mother Lina Fendler, née Koppelmann, at Crelle Strasse 42. His parents had emigrated as stateless persons from Russia to Berlin before the First World War. The family lived in a building that the father co-owned and – until his death in 1937/38 – managed. No more is currently known about the family.

Harry Fendler was made to perform forced labour for the Helmuth Korth firm at Kessel Strasse 9 in Lichtenrade.

Alfred and Harry Fendler were deported to Auschwitz along with almost 1000 others on the 29th “transport to the East” on 19 February 1943. This transport also included 24 Jews from Hamburg and eight German Jews who had emigrated from Germany to Finland. They had been arrested and taken to Berlin following Finland’s occupation by the German army. They were the only Jews who lived in Finland in 1939 and died in the Holocaust. After the selection process on arrival in Auschwitz-Birkenau, 772 people were immediately killed in the gas chambers on 20 February 1943. There is no more trace of the Fendler brothers. According to his death certificate, Harry Fendler died aged 17 on 15 March 1943.

At the request of a relative, death certificates were issued for the Fendler brothers and their mother in 1950/51.