AHC interview with Leo Rechter

Digital recordingAugust 9, 2013Leo Rechter was born on Sep. 6, 1927 into a Jewish middleclass family in Vienna, Austria. His father Josef Rechter had a kosher butcher shop, his mother Jyte (born Kippl) was a housewife. The family lived in the city’s 20th District, Brigittenau, where Leo attended high school (Gymnasium) at Unterbergerstrasse. After Kristallnacht in December 1938 or January 1939 the family managed to leave Austria for Antwerp, Belgium. In 1941 they were interned in Waterschei by the Germans. Leo Rechter’s father was forced to work with the military engineering group ‘Organisation Todt’ and later perished in Auschwitz. Leo Rechter, his mother and two younger siblings meanwhile went into hiding in Brussels where they survived the war. After the war he joined a group of Zionists and went to Israel. In 1957 he came to the U.S. He lived in New York, attended university and worked as a bank executive for 20 years.Austrian Heritage Collectio