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Leo Bretholz, who made a daring escape from the Nazis by jumping off a moving train en route to Auschwitz and decades later led a campaign for reparations from the French railway that carried thousands of others to their deaths during the Holocaust, died March 8 at his home in Pikesville, Md. He was 93.

His daughter Denise Harris confirmed his death but said she did not know the cause.

Born to a Jewish family in Vienna, Mr. Bretholz became a leader among activists who have called for reparations from governments and companies in Europe that aided the Nazi regime during its execution of the Final Solution.

The often-controversial issue of reparations has figured prominently in recent considerations of the planned Purple Line light-rail system to link Montgomery and Prince George’s counties in Maryland.

The Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Francais (SNCF), the French railway system that historians say carried 76,000 people to Nazi camps, is the majority owner of Keolis, one of the companies invited to bid on the multibillion-dollar Purple Line project. Mr. Bretholz was scheduled to testify March 10 before the Maryland General Assembly’s House Ways and Means Committee on a bill that would prevent Keolis from winning the contract if the SNCF does not pay reparations to victims.

Leo Bretholz as a young man in Vienna, Austria. (USHMM, courtesy of Leo Bretholz)

A longtime resident of Baltimore County, Mr. Bretholz had frequently recounted in speeches before lawmakers, schoolchildren and others his story of persecution and survival.

Leo Bretholz was born March 6, 1921, to Polish immigrants in the Austrian capital. His father, a tailor and amateur Yiddish actor, died when Mr. Bretholz was a boy. His mother supported their surviving children by doing embroidery.

At his mother’s insistence, Mr. Bretholz fled Austria after it was annexed by Nazi Germany in 1938. He recounted traveling by rail to Trier, a city in western Germany, and then swimming across the Sauer River to Luxembourg. There, he said, he was met by refugee workers who smuggled him into Belgium.

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Leo Bretholz, Holocaust survivor and activist, dies at 93

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Mr. Bretholz called for reparations from the French railway that carried thousands of others to their deaths during the Holocaust

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He escaped 2 times from the germans and worked to forge ID’s and locate german troops - 1940-44

After D day he worked with refugees and eventually moved to the US in 1947

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He became a vocal advocate for reparations from the French railway which had transported thousands of people to Nazi camps. He continued to fight for justice and accountability, ensuring that the survivors of the Holocaust are not forgotten.

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Leo's Story of Surviving the Holocaust Written by Him

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Leo's Story of Surviving the Holocaust Written by Him

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Holocaust Survivor Leo Bretholz Testimony | USC Shoah Foundation

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"BITTERNESS DESTROYS THE PERSON WHO IS BITTER... YOU CANNOT FEEL BITTER. YOU MUST FEEL DETERMINED."

- Leo Bretholz

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Leo was the oldest child and only son of Polish immigrants in Vienna. His father, a tailor and amateur Yiddish actor, died of an illness in 1930 when Leo was 9. His mother supported the family by working as an embroiderer; Leo helped out by looking after his two younger sisters. They lived in one of Vienna's large Jewish districts on the east side of the Danube Canal.

1933-39: Anti-Jewish sentiment escalated after Germany annexed Austria in 1938. Jewish men, including some of Leo's uncles and neighbors, were arrested every day. Leo was 17 and afraid it could happen to him, so his mother urged him to flee Austria. He took a train to Trier, Germany, and swam across the Sauer River to Luxembourg. Once there, a relief group assisting refugees from Germany and Austria smuggled him to Belgium.

1940-44: Germany invaded Belgium in 1940 and Leo was deported to a refugee camp in France. He escaped by crawling under the fence, but was arrested in 1942 and eventually sent to the Drancy transit camp. En route to Auschwitz by cattle car, Leo and a friend worked all day to pry open the bars of the window. Driven by fear and hoping for luck, Leo leapt from the train. With the underground's help, he got false papers as "Max Henri Lefevre" and worked for the underground forging IDs and locating German troops.

After D Day, Leo worked with refugees in Limoges, France. His mother, sisters and 55 other relatives perished in the Holocaust. Leo immigrated to the United States in 1947.

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Leo was the oldest child and only son of Polish immigrants in Vienna. His father, a tailor and amateur Yiddish actor, died of an illness in 1930 when Leo was 9. His mother supported the family by working as an embroiderer; Leo helped out by looking after his two younger sisters.