Alex Blumenfeld

As so many German circuses in the 1920s, the Blumenfeld brothers slid into severe financial difficulties, so that bankruptcy proceedings had to be opened in 1928. The complete lack of financial means forced the Blumenfeld brothers to go separate ways. Alex spent the next seasons as horse trainer and performer in Scandinavia (Bech-Olsen, Altenburg) and the Netherlands (Roberti),

Alex Blumenfeld used a circus engagement in Denmark in 1937 for emigration. One year later, he moved to Belgium, and finally to France. He tried in vain to achieve an entry permit to Sweden, Luxemburg, or Great Britain. When the war broke out, his situation worsened severely. The French police arrested him as “enemy alien” and sent him to the internment camp of St. Cyprien in Southern France. For some time, Alex was able to correspond with his wife Eugenie (1893-1981), who belonged to the Italian circus family Cardinale and had stayed in Belgium. After several transfers to other camps, Alex got to Drancy, from where the Germans deported him to the concentration camp Auschwitz on August 14, 1942. There, his trace is lost.

Martin Holler