Viktor Heitler and his wife Franziska

“HEITLER Viktor, merchant, unemployed, St. Pölten, Josefstraße 22, caring for his wife and 2 children, nervous condition, receives monthly support payment of 26.67 Reichsmark from the local Jewish community organization and 3.33 Reichsmark from the local Women’s Organization, pays monthly rent of 24.3 Reichsmark, constitutes most urgent emergency.”
List of welfare recipients, Welfare Department of the Jewish community organization in St. Pölten, before November 9, 1938

Viktor Heitler was born to Israel and Julie, née Friedmann, in Wagram an der Traisen on November 18, 1884. His wife Franziska, daughter of Joachim Heinrich Herlinger and Anna, née Fink, was also from Lower Austria, namely from Trasdorf near Dürnrohr, where she was born on July 14, 1894. The couple got married in the St. Pölten Synagogue on July 2, 1922 and lived at Wiener Straße 10 in Herzogenburg. Half a year later, on January 27, 1923, their son was born, whom they named Adolf – a popular name at the time, but an unfortunate choice at the latest by the “Anschluss,” especially given the surname. His Hebrew name, which he would later continue to use in Israel, was Aharon. The couple’s daughter Irma Rachel was born almost exactly one year later, on Janu­ary 8, 1924. Both children were noticeably delicate, but were also very active in Betar, the Zionist youth group in St. Pölten. They are depicted on numerous photographs of excursions and group meetings.

It is not known when exactly the family relocated to St Pölten, yet in any case Viktor Heitler ended up running a modest store at Josefstraße 22. Like so many “little people,” the couple hardly left a trace in historical sources. It is all the more special that an entry in the accounts book of the Jewish community organization in St. Pölten from the High Holy Days in 1935 – i. e. between New Year and Yom Kippur (which in that year fell from September 28 to October 7) – cites a small payment of 12 Schilling to “Mrs. Heitler for supervising the gallery on the Holy Days.” The children also sat up on the women’s gallery, presumably because the religious services were sometimes too longwinded for them.

Like just about all Betar members, Adolf and Irma managed to leave Austria before it was too late. Adolf already acquired a passport in June 1939 and was able to emigrate to Palestine/Eretz Israel on July 11, 1939 at the age of only sixteen and without financial means, linguistic skills, or professional training. Irma moved to Vienna with her parents on October 3, 1939 and later followed her brother. In an interview, the head of the Betar children’s group, Zwi Gol – previously known as Hermann Hahn – remembered a reunion with Adolf Heitler: The delicate boy had become a tall and powerful kibbutznik with the Hebrew name Aharon Givon.

His totally impoverished parents lived off the support of the Jewish community organization and the Jewish Women’s Association. Their last address in St. Pölten was at Kremser Gasse 17, meaning that they had found refuge in the house of Barbara Betty Fischl, which had not been “Aryanized” yet. Altogether 77 people were sent to their deaths from the accommodation they were assigned to at Obere Donaustraße 43 in Vienna’s second district in October 1939. Viktor and Franziska Heitler were deported to the Opole Ghetto near Lublin on February 15, 1941 and either succumbed to the terrible living conditions there or were murdered in either the Belzec or Sobibor extermination camp.