Felix Weil, who at the age of 11 in 1939 was rescued from Nazi Germany with the Kindertransport program, died Oct. 14. He was 97. Born in Frankfurt, Weil lived in England with a host family for the duration of the war in Europe.

After his arrival in London, he learned that his life had been saved because of a clerical error. The seat on the Kindertransport he received was intended for a girl named Felicia Weil.

He never saw his immediate family again; Weil’s mother, father, and sister were deported from Germany to Lodz Ghetto and then to Auschwitz, where they perished. After the war, Weil lived with an aunt and uncle in the United States. He was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1946 and sent to Germany with the occupation forces.

Weil graduated from Kent State University and with his wife, Fran, made Dayton his home: first as an accountant and then in the commercial art business.

For years, Weil shared his story with students, at Holocaust-related programs, for college-level courses in the Dayton area, and as a docent for Prejudice and Memory: A Holocaust Exhibit, at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force. He also recorded his testimony with the USC Shoah Foundation.

Later in life, when he moved to the Chicago area to be closer to his children and grandchildren, he was a speaker for the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Skokie.

In a 2006 essay in The Observer, Weil wrote after a return visit to Frankfurt: “We realized how lucky we were to survive — to live our lives to the fullest, and to raise new families. We must be grateful to the Almighty for allowing us to take our place in society and carry on our ancient traditions which almost were destroyed and extinguished forever.”

To read the complete November 2025 Dayton Jewish Observer, click here.