| Close-up portrait of Fryderyka Mangel in school beret |
Renata Kessler is daughter of Edmund Kessler and Fryderyka Mangel Kessler. She was born in Vienna, Austria in 1946. Her father Edmund, the son of Rachmiel (Ryszard) and Laura Kessler nee Frankel, was born in Lvov on June 2 1903 (or 1908). His father owned and directed several liquor and related business (bars, restaurants, etc...). Edmund's relatives were all either professionals or in the family liquor business. Edmund Kessler graduated from the Polish Gymnasium and then attended the Jan Kazimierz University in Lvov. After receiving an advanced law degree in 1931, he moved to Rzeszow to work for a senior attorney. There he met Fryderyka Mangel. They married in Lvov in 1937. Fryderyka was born March 14, 1914 in Rzeszow where her father owned a shoe factory and business. She was the daughter of Simon (Symcha Mier) and Rosa (Rozy Schmukler) Mangel. Fryderyka had two brothers, Artur (b. 1921) and Herman Mangel. After the outbreak of World War II, Lvov fell under Soviet occupation. However, in June 1941 Germany invaded eastern Poland and the Soviet Union. That fall, the Kesslers were forced to move into a ghetto. From there Edmund was sent to the Janowska concentration camp in late summer 1942. He had to work in a stone quarry, was beaten into unconsciousness several times and given very little to eat. However, after three months, he managed to escape and join Fryderyka in hiding. First they hid in the attic of a sympathetic Pole, but when a Ukrainian neighbor threatened to denounce them, they moved to the farm of Wojciech and Katarzyna Kalwinski. The Kalwinskis had an underground bunker which measured only 5 by 7 meters. Though they were already hiding many people, they agreed to take in the Kesslers as well. Eventually 24 Jews hid on the Kalwinski farm. Their son Kazimierz played a major role in helping care for the hidden Jews. His siblings also did what they could to help. The Kesslers remained in the bunker until they were liberated by the Soviet army on July 27, 1944. In March 1945 they repatriated to Poland and reurned to Rzeszow. However a few months later a pogrom broke out, and they fled to Krakow. When they were threatened with another pogrom, they decided to flee Poland permanently. By then Fryderyka was seven months pregnant. Edmund and Fryderyka arrived in Vienna and shortly thereafter gave birth to a daughter, Renata. Edmund Kessler worked as an administrator at the Rothschild Hospital in Vienna, a way station for Jewish displaced persons, and he served as Secretary and later as Chairman of the International Committee for Jewish Refugees. He continued this work until April 1952 when the family immigrated to the United States. Fryderyka's parents and brother Artur all perished in Belzec in 1942. Her brother Herman Mangel survived fighting with the Anders Army and moved to Israel where he bacame a notable psychiatrist. Edmund's cousin, Julian Kessler also fought with the Anders Army and settled in England where he received recognition for his outstanding mililtary service. Edmund's father, Rachmiel Kessler, perished in Lvov on August 4, 1942 and his mother perished in May, 1942 at the age of 59. Edmund's sister, Maria Kessler Jasinska, converted to Catholicism before the war, and survived the war together with her husband, Stanislaus Jasinski and daughter Henryka as Polish Catholics. Edmund's cousin, Pawel Kessler, whose family had also converted to Catholicism, had served as a judge before the war. He died in a Soviet prison following the Soviet occupation in 1940. In 1967 the Kalwinski family was honored by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations. Date: 1932 Locale: Rzeszow, [Rzeszow] Poland Credit: USHMM, courtesy of Renata Kessler Copyright: USHMM |
