Pikesville Holocaust Survivor Dies Before Testifying on Wartime Reparations

A Maryland Holocaust survivor who planned to testify Monday on a bill tied to reparations is getting a hearing, but without testimony expected from Holocaust survivor Leo Bretholz, who died over the weekend.

Sol Levinson & Bros. funeral home says Leo Bretholz, 93, of Pikesville died Saturday. Friend and fellow Holocaust survivor Rosette Goldstein is set to speak in Bretholz’ memory, reports WJZ TV.

The measure before the House Ways and Means Committee on Monday would require companies involved in transporting victims to concentration camps during World War II to pay reparations to bid for public-private partnership projects. 

Keolis America, which is majority-owned by the French rail company SNCF, is one of four bidders competing for a contract to build Maryland’s Purple Line light rail. Historians say SNCF transported about 76,000 Jews and other prisoners to concentration camps.

Bretholz, originally from Austria, spent nearly seven years hiding and fleeing the Nazis across Europe, before immigrating to Baltimore and settling in Pikesville. He has told his story publicly thousands of times, according to an earlier Patch story.

His World War II experiences have been shared in the film “See You Again, Soon,” and he wrote a book about his life. Bretholz was on a train taking Jews to be killed at Auschwitz in 1942 when he was able to escape and spent the rest of the war working in the French Underground.