Jean Feran, Holocaust survivor, former N.O. resident laid to rest here
JEAN Z. FERAN, a former resident of New Orleans who lived in La Crosse, WI. since Hurricane Katrina, died there on July 9. She was 94.
Jean Feran
A Holocaust survivor, she was born Jirina Zelezna in Novy Bydzov, near present-day Prague in Czechoslovakia. Prior to the outbreak of World War II, when her homeland was invaded by the Germans in 1939, she was given permission to continue her studies. She had hoped to become a medical doctor, but her plans at university were put on hold when her mother and stepfather were taken to Terezin transit camp in 1942 with 2,000 other Jews. Told they were being sent to a labor camp, they were never heard from again. Their daughter was never able to discern their fate.
Their names and the dates of their transport are recorded on the wall of the Pinkas Synagogue in Prague along with 77, 296 other Jewish victims from Bohemia and Moravia. Most in that ghetto/labor camp were killed in Auschwitz and Treblinka. Over 80 of her relatives died in concentration camps during the Holocaust.
Initially permitted to stay in Czechoslovakia, she had hopes of becoming a doctor and began her studies at Charles University. However, she was not allowed to attend medical school because of her religion, and eventually was prohibited by Nazi laws from continuing at the university.
Scheduled to report to a concentration camp in 1945 herself, she was spared when her country was liberated by the Allies.
After the war, she worked as a secretary for the Ministry of Industry before obtaining a visa to Sao Paulo, Brazil to visit an aunt who had fled Europe shortly before the outbreak of war. It was there that she met her husband, Fred Feran (Alfred Feuermann), a Slovakian refugee who was living in Brazil after having lost most of his own family during the Shoah. Czechoslovakia.
Married in 1947, the couple immigrated to the United States and established a residence and a clock restoration and repair business in New Orleans.
Feran was active in her book club and many Jewish organizations, serving as president of the New Orleans chapter and vice president of the Southern Region of Hadassah, was a member of the Temple Sinai Sisterhood belonged to the New Orleans Section of the National Council of Jewish Women.
She possessed an intense love of classical music and attended many concerts and maintained a number of music subscriptions. Feran was a gracious hostess, inviting many of her friends and extended Pulitzer family members to dine at frequent dinner parties at her home. She frequently traveled to Europe to travel and to decorate her homes on Fountainebleau Boulevard, and later, on Napoleon Avenue. Among her favorite destinations were Paris, Florence and Prague.
A story on her life was featured in the Times-Picayune in connection with the Precious Legacy traveling exhibit at the New Orleans Museum of Art in 1985. The collection of Judaica treasures from Czechoslovakia consisted of items the Nazis stole from Jews in that country.
When the floodwaters associated with Hurricane Katrina destroyed their residence in 2005, the Ferans evacuated to Texas and then moved to La Crosse to be closer to their daughter’s family.
Feran was predeceased by her husband Fred and son Russell in early 2010, who both perished within one week. She is survived by her daughter, Maureen Freedland (Dr. Robert); four grandchildren, her daughter-in-law Phyllis Feran and three great-grandchildren.
Graveside services were conducted on Friday, July 15 at Hebrew Rest Cemetery No. 3, 2003 Pelopidas Street, at 11:00 am. Rabbi Ed Paul Cohn officiated.
Memorials are preferred to the Maureen and Robert Freedland Community Fund for Studies of the Shoah of the La Crosse Community Foundation, P.O. Box 1811, La Crosse, WI 54602-1811, a nonprofit endowment which the Ferans helped establish, or to the charity of your choice.
