Izidor Blum 1896 - 1945

Born 16.7.1896 in Cepari
Died 19.3.1945 in Melk

Biography

Izidor (Israel Leib) Blum was born to Wolf and Golda Blum on 16 July 1896, in Cepari/Bistritz, Transylvania, the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He had four brothers: Abraham, Josef, Dan, Hersch and two sisters: Eve and Rachel.

Izidor-Israel married Anna-Judith Guttman in 1925 and the young family settled in Cepari next to his parents' house. They had four daughters: Iboya-Eve (my mother) – born on March 29th.,1926; Joly-Brendel – born in 1928; Emillia – born on April 9th.,1929 and Maria/Mirian-Zisel - born in 1935.

In Cepari, the extended Blum family owned a grocery shop as well as agricultural lands.

Izidor's father – Wolf, passed away in 1938 and buried in the jewish cemetery in Lushca by Bistritz, and his mother – Golda, passed away in 1943 and buried in the old cemetery of Cepari. In 1938, Izidor, Anna and their daughters left Cepari and moved to the county’s capital city – Bistritz.

In May 1944, just after PassOver holiday, the family was deported to the Bistritz ghetto (established in “Stamboly Farm”) with app. 6,300 Jews from Bistritz county. A month later, on June 2nd,1944, the Blum family was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, on the first train transport from the Bistritz ghetto. On arrival, followed by the Selection, my grandmother Anna-Judith (39 years old), my aunts Jolly-Brendel (16 years old) and Maria-Zisel (9 years old) were exterminated in the Auschwitz-Birkenau gas chambers and crematoria.

Thanks to the information received from Arolsen Archives in Germany and from Mauthausen Memorial and Melk Memorial in the republic of Austria, I know that on June 19th, 1944 my grandfather Izidor-Israel Blum and his brother Hersch Blum, were sent from Auschwitz-Birkenau to Mauthausen as prisoner number 74752 (assigned to Izidor-Israel) and 74751 (assigned to his brother Hersch). They were held in Mauthausen for a few days before they were taken on freight trains to the satelite camp Melk. On June 23rd, 1944 they were transferred to Melk together with more than 700 other prisoners categorized as Hungarian Jews.

In Melk, the prisoners mainly had to perform forced labor in the construction of a tunnel system, which was used to build a giant underground factory for the Steyr-Daimler-Puch company (called the Quartz project due to the nature character of the soil). Food supplies, safety precautions and medical care were extremely inadequate. As a result, many of the prisoners, who were already weakened by their previous imprisonment in other camps, often fell ill very quickly and died.

According to the “death book” of the Mauthausen camp, Hersch Blum died of “general sepsis” on October 4th, 1944, while Izidor-Israel also died of “general sepsis” on March 19th,1945. However, it is important to emphasize that the SS, who ran the camp, mostly made up the causes of death listed in the death book and that these do not necessarily correspond to the actual causes of death.

Based on the dates of death, it can be assumed that Hersch's body was transported to the main Mauthausen/Gusen camp and was cremated in the crematoria there. Izidor-Israel on the other hand, was cremated in the crematorium in Melk, which started operating in December 1944. The former crematorium is now the Melk Memorial and the incinerator still exists. In Melk, the almost 5,000 dead are commemorated inside the Memorial on the “Wall of Names”. The names of Izidor and Hersch Blum can also be found there as well as in the Mauthausen's “Room of Names” website.

 

Dr. Israel Hirsch, grandson

 

Location In room