Felix Willmann (Willman)

Felix Willmann was born in Vienna as the legitimate son of Georg, called Gabriel, Willmann and Ernestine, née Siebner. The family is Jewish. After elementary school, he attended grammar school and then a trade academy in Vienna, where he graduated in 1917. He is then drafted into the I.

After the defeat of Austria-Hungary, the collapse of the Dual Monarchy and the expulsion of the Habsburgs, Felix Willmann worked as an accountant in various companies. In 1926, he joins the Social Democratic Workers' Party (SDAP) [today: SPÖ]. In 1928, he began working as an accountant in the Vienna Jewish Community (IKG). In 1933, he marries Paula Winter.

On March 12, 1938, Felix Willmann witnesses the demise of a free and independent Austria with the invasion of the German Wehrmacht. With the occupation of Austria, German legislation was adopted and with it the 'Nuremberg Race Laws', according to which Felix Willmann and Paula Willmann were considered 'full Jews'.

On March 16, 1938, Felix Willmann was arrested by the Gestapo and deported to the Dachau concentration camp on April 2, 1938 on the so-called 'Prominent Transport'. From there, he was transferred to the Buchenwald concentration camp on September 23, 1938. On January 16, 1939, he is released from the concentration camp with the order to leave occupied Austria as soon as possible.

On February 13, 1939, Felix Willmann and his wife leave Austria and reach New York in the same month. There they were initially supported by aid organizations before Felix Willmann worked as a dairy farmer in North Carolina for four years in 1940. During this time, he became the father of a son and a daughter. The family changed their surname to 'Willman'. Due to a bladder infection, he had to give up his work in agriculture and moved with his family to Pittsburg, where he worked as an accountant.

In Pittsburg, Felix Willman and his family experienced the liberation of Austria and the re-establishment of the Republic in April and May 1945. However, the family decided to stay in the United States of America and became US citizens in October 1945. In 1946, they moved to New York, where Felix Willman returned to work as an accountant.