Glasgow service to be held for WWII soldier who fled the Nazis

The event is being organised by Gareth Davies, a military historian who contacted The Herald about the commemoration and seeking to contact any surviving family of Emil Stock.

We were able to contact his nephew, H.M.P. Stock PhD, in Australia who provided a detailed family history and put Mr Davies in touch with Oliver, now living in retirement in Canada.

Emil Stock was born in Vienna in 1914, the son of Julius Stock (formerly Chaskel Juda Chajmowicz) and Marie Stock (née Lebelang).

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As established by his grandson, Dr Stock, Julius was a cadet, then officer, in the Austro-Hungarian army between 1899 and 1919, after which he ran a small grocery shop.

The family, including Emil's older brother Alexander lived in the city's second district at 1/9 Josefinengasse.

Emil studied at the Vienna University Philosophical Faculty, reading philosophy, oriental studies and musicology, intending to then study law. In one letter he had discussed becoming a lawyer when he got his diploma but also mused on a career as a journalist. However, he would be forced to leave in 1938.

In the spring of that year, the Anschluss, the joining of Austria with Nazi Germany, made Austria a hostile place for Jews.

Of the close to 1,000 professors at the University of Vienna almost 350 (35%) self-identified as Jewish, along with 2,250 (24%) of the 9,200 students. Under Nazi race laws, a further 1,600 were considered to be ethnically Jewish.

Following the Anschluss the university was closed for 10 days so its employee and student registers could be examined - the Jewish students were expelled and their records expunged.

Emil escaped from Austria with false papers for Mexico but travelled to Edinburgh, where he was initially interned as an enemy alien.

On his arrival, he claimed asylum and made clear that he had family lawfully in the UK, but he was detained as Musselburgh for a long period.

He was released from internment on October 27, 1939 - though may have been paroled before that - before eventually being allowed to join the army, first in the pioneer corps then the 1st Royal Tank Regiment.

The Stock parents were not so lucky. It appears that they had used the funds they possessed to pay the Reichsfluchtsteuer (Reich flight tax) for Alex.

Marie and Julius Stock (Image: Stock family)

Initially introduced to dissuade wealthy citizens from moving abroad, by 1938 it had become a form of legalised theft to confiscate assets from Jews seeking to flee persecution.

Alex was allowed to leave - upon payment of the charge - having secured a scholarship at the University of Edinburgh, but Emil's university record had been expunged upon his expelling.

However, according to Dr Stock's research the local Mexican consul would, for a fee, provide entry permits to Mexico on the basis it was unlikely anyone would actually make it to Central America.

He left Austria for Edinburgh at some point between September 26 and the middle of November 1938, and while it's unclear if he paid the Reichsfluchtsteuer he would have had to pay for a Mexican visa and bribes would have been unavoidable.

Dr Stock concludes: "It is clear that helping pay the taxes and bribes for their sons left Julius and Marie impoverished to the point that they could not leave."

Marie was arrested in Vienna on April 26, 1942 while shopping for bread and was deported from Vienna to Wlodawa in occupied Poland, before being murdered at the Sobibor extermination camp on April 30.

It is unknown whether Julius ever knew what became of his wife.

He joined the resistance but was arrested in the Netherlands in December 1943 or January 1944 and interned at Westerbork.

On January 20 he was transported to a concentration camp, Terezín, in the modern Czech Republic.

Five months later, in May 1944, he was sent to Auschwitz where he was murdered aged 63.

The order to transport Julius Stock to Auschwitz (Image: Arolsen Archives)

The following month, Emil landed on the beach at Normandy.

He was wounded in action on August 23 and eventually succumbed to his injuries in Aberdeen on November 6.

Emil was severely burned when his tank was hit by a panzerfaust and caught fire, sustaining burns to 40% or more of his body, with his likely cause of death kidney failure due to Rhabdomyolysis.

He left behind a thesis, in German, titled The Freedom of the Will which his wife unsuccessfully petitioned the army pension board to have translated and published.

Emil was buried in the Glenduffhill Jewish Cemetery in Glasgow, where a commemoration will be held for him on the 80th anniversary of his death.

Mr Davies, a military historian and former member of the 1st RTR told The Herald: "I try to organise commemorative events at the graves of our war dead on the anniversary of their deaths. We did the 100th anniversary for the First World War, and five years ago we had a few for the 75th of Normandy but we’re making a bit of a push for the 80th for veterans from the RTR who live close to where our war dead are buried to visit their graves.

“I emailed two synagogues in Glasgow. Eventually via a few connections the Glasgow Hebrew Burial Society said ‘I’m sure we can help’ and now we have the Chief Rabbi coming along to say a prayer. There’ll be a small gathering including Royal Tank Regiment veterans along with the Royal Tank Regiment Association Scottish Branch Standard.

"As well as the chief rabbi it's hoped that members of the Association of Jewish Ex Servicemen & Women will be there. And most importantly, thanks to the Herald's efforts, members of the family will be there."

As well as the chief rabbi, it's hoped some veterans of the Royal Tank Regiment will be in attendance.

Emil was survived by his wife, Wilamina, who he met in Edinburgh. She was already a widow with two children after her husband, William Ogilvie died of a heart attack.

She and Emil had two children, Margaret and Oliver. Margaret died in Bradford in 2021, her half-sister having married former Herald reporter John Hawthorn.

Her younger brother is now living in retirement in Canada and plans to attend the memorial for his father.