| Born: | 08-14-1908 |
| Faculty: | Law School |
| Category: | Expelled student |
Artur Leo FEUER, born on August 14th, 1908 in Knihinin Colony, Galicia/Austria-Hungary [from 1918 Ukraine, from 1921 Poland, became a part of Stanislau [Stanisławów] in 1925, from 1939 Russia, from 1945 Ukraine, from 1962: Ivano-Frankivsk|Івано-Франківськ/Ukraine] (entitled residency ("heimatberechtigt") for Vienna/Austria, citizenship 1938: Austria), son of Moses Srul/Moritz Feuer (1877-1940, merchant) and Rifke/Regine Feuer, née Eigenfeld (1884-?). He had lived in Vienna's 2nd district, Ausstellungsstrasse 37/14 since 1914 and had passed his school-leaving examination (Matura) at the Bundesgymnasium Wien 2 in 1929. He began to study law at the University of Vienna with interruptions. He had completed his fourth and final year in the fall term of 1935/36 and was no longer enrolled at the Law School in 1938, but was already in the stage of preparing for the final exams/viva voce ("Rigorosen").
In 1938 he was forced to quit his studies/final examinations status and to leave the University of Vienna for racist reasons after the takeover of power of National-Socialism. But after a long period of uncertainty, he was still able to finish his studies and graduated on July 21st, 1938, but only under numerous symbolic discriminations as part of a “non-Aryan graduation”, while at the same time being banned from his profession in the entire German Reich for racist reason.
He had to flee Vienna, as did his brother Julius Feuer (b. 1910 in Knihinin Colon), who had been laid off after 8 years as a private civil servant at the Shell Floridsdorf mineral oil factory, and his Vienna born sister Elfriede Feuer (1916-2012), who had worked as a textile technician and also was forced to leave the University of Vienna and to quit her law studies.
On May 14th, 1938, he submitted an application for emigration support to the emigration office of the Jewish Community Vienna, stating that he had worked as a senior official and organizer at the former Lobeg & Köb, the car and goods transport company of the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB), until January 1st, 1934 and had since operated a small lubricant and mineral oil business as an independent entrepreneur, which he now had to liquidate. Since the "Anschluss", he had also undertaken some further professional training in order to improve his chances of emigration, including in men's underwear and workwear tailoring (in a befriended company), in confectionery (a course lasting several weeks), in painting (through practical training under professional guidance) and in driving. He wanted to emigrate to either the USA, Australia, New Zealand or Colombia, but had no means to do so. In September 1938, the possibility of emigrating to Colombia became a reality, ship passage, landing money and a visa were in sight, and on October 6th, he was able to board the steamer Viktoria, Conte Rossa from the port in Trieste/Italy with his brother to Shanghai/China. His sister was able to emigrate to Milano/Italy with the help of relatives, and in 1939 to the USA and his parents succeeded to emigrate to Palestine [Israel] in March 1939, where his father died soon after arrival.
Artur Leo Feuer was later able to emigrate from Shanghai to the USA via the Philippines. When he was drafted to the U.S.-Army in San Francisco on October 16th, 1940, he was living in San Francisco and working for the San Francisco News and gave his sister, Elly Sobiloff, in Fall River, Mass., as his permanent contact address.
Although he kept his doctoral diploma, he was unable to work as a lawyer under the conditions of emigration and moved his activities to the import-export business. His daughter remembers:
"While he did not practice law in his new life, he always said law was the best background for any number of careers. It was an essential part of who he was. My aunt and cousin became lawyers; I almost followed that path, as well. He became a successful businessman. Toward the end of his life he was selected to go on the second U.S trade delegation to Shanghai when China was opening up to the United States – so a full circle back to Shanghai."
Lit.: Archive of the University of Vienna/enrollment forms ("Nationale") JUR 1929–1938, graduation registry ("Promotionsprotokoll") JUR 1924-1939, No. 6513; Archive of the Jewish Community Vienna/emigration registry; POSCH 2009, 373; https://www.myheritage.at; https://www.familysearch.org; https://www.genteam.at; information by courtesy of his daughter Michele Foyer, San Francisco/USA, 10/2024.
Herbert Posch
