Marcel Meicler Identified
May 16, 2011
Marcel Meicler was born in Berchem-Sainte-Agathe, Belgium. He lived with his family in Brussels. In December 1942 the Gestapo took his father away. Marcel’s mother thought his father was arrested because of his resistance activities and not because his Jewish faith. Shortly after, she arranged for herself, Marcel, and his brother, Theodore, to go into hiding with Gentiles. Each family member was in a different place of hiding in Brussels during the war.
Marcel does not know the exact specifics of his time in hiding; he was moved several times to various convents and orphanages in Belgium. He remembers that he was reunited with his mother and brother during the war in an orphanage in Lasne, a suburb of Brussels. The family was separated again after this brief reunion, and Marcel was moved to another house in Lasne. He stayed in Lasne for a couple of years before moving back in with his mother and grandparents in 1948.
Marcel’s mother had two brothers in the United States and she emigrated in 1955. In 1957, Marcel graduated from high school in Belgium and then followed his mother to the United States. He received a B.S. in physics from the University of Houston and a master’s and Ph.D. in math from the University of Texas. He worked for both NASA and Univac and was an associate professor for six years at the University of Texas. Marcel Meicler now works part-time in the real-estate business and lives with his wife in Houston.