Peter Feigl

After Peter Feigl's parents were deported from southwestern France to Auschwitz, he received help from the Jewish underground to get near enough to the Swiss border to attempt escape. Peter lay on the forest floor, awaiting the sounds of dogs barking, signaling a shift change in the guards on the German-occupied French side of the border. Peter ran as the guards fired shots toward him. He crossed the barbed wire and made it safely to neutral Switzerland.

Biographical Information

Peter Feigl, the only child of Ernst and Agnes Bornstein Feigl, was born on March 1, 1929, in Berlin, Germany. His father, a mechanical engineer, worked for a multinational company selling automotive equipment throughout Europe. His mother stayed home to raise Peter. When the family, who were non-practicing Jews, moved to Vienna, Austria, Peter was baptized into the Catholic Church. His parents hoped he would be shielded from the virulent antisemitism in Germany and Austria.

In March 1938, Germany annexed Austria. Peter’s family fled to Belgium, pretending to be leaving on a business trip for Ernst. After Germany invaded Belgium on May 10, 1940, Peter’s father was arrested as an enemy alien. Peter, his mother and grandmother fled to France. There, they were detained in the Gurs camp as enemy aliens.

In June 1940, Peter and his mother were released from Gurs. With the help of local nuns, they settled in Auch, west of Toulouse. Peter's mother was given part-time work in a food distribution center operated by American Quakers and the Swiss Red Cross. This helped the family move into a one-room apartment. Peter’s father, who also had been interned in Gurs, was released for health reasons. He was allowed to join Peter and his mother in Auch in the spring of 1941. Meanwhile, Peter’s grandmother joined Peter’s maternal aunt in Spain. They eventually obtained visas to the U.S. However, for Peter, his mother and father, several attempts to obtain U.S. immigration visas were unsuccessful.

In summer 1942, the Nazis and their French collaborators began rounding up Jews in France and deporting them to killing centers like Auschwitz-Birkenau in German-occupied Poland. On August 26, 1942, Peter’s parents were arrested while he was away at a Quaker summer camp. They were taken to a transit camp and subsequently deported to Auschwitz, where they were killed. Peter knew that they had been arrested and held in France, but nothing more. He kept a diary in which he expressed his fear and sorrow at being separated. With the help of the Quakers, Peter was sent to the predominantly Protestant village of Le Chambon sur Lignon. In the area surrounding Le Chambon, nearly 5,000 people sought refuge. Among them were 3,500 Jews, including many children, who were sheltered. In the village, Peter was given false identity papers and sent to a high school in Figeac, France as a boarding student. From there, after evading arrest in May 1944 when Germans raided Figeac, Peter escaped to neutral Switzerland. With the help of the Jewish underground and people smugglers, he climbed over barbed wire fences.

Peter immigrated to the United States in July 1946, where he served three years in the U.S. Air Force. For 35 years, Peter had a career in international aircraft sales and related services in the private sector. He spent over five years as a Senior Negotiator in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Since retiring, Peter has traveled around the world, speaking about his history and reading from the two diaries he wrote during the Holocaust. In 1954, Peter married Leonie Warschauer and they had two daughters. He is now a volunteer at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.