Dear Dr. Horn, 
A couple of years ago, I wanted to reach out and send you a thank you note. A thank you for delivering me into this world. Instead I came across this page. Tonight- years later I decided to watch 
a holocaust documentary. I thought of you again. I decided to come back and learn more about you and write this note. You  were there when my grandpa took his last breath and when I took my first. I remember my visits to you as a little girl. I remember your compassion, your huge heart.  You surely are a unique, rare human being and I'm so glad I got to learn more about you on this page.  Wow- you are even more amazing than that little girl in Chicago even knew. Thank you Dr. Horn- grateful for you. 

I and my whole family were Dr Horn patients when he was in River Grove, on Harlem Ave & on Belmont ave. How I missed him. Such a caring man. God Bless!  Jeffery S. Weiner, Sr.

With love and prayers  for the family. I will always love and respect you Dr Horn .You were so wonderfull to me Joanna Kasperek

My Thoughts and prayers are with the Horn Family.... Dr. Horn was such a sweet man and so full of life... I enjoyed seeing him and chatting with him when he came into the pharmacy where I work... His face just radiated kindness and such a zest for life... He reminded me so much of my Dad.... Who also loved people... I was heartbroken to learn of his passing... I will miss him as so many others will... He touched me with his smile and his stories...  cheryl Jacobs

Jack and Jean Sabas and Family

God needed another angel in heaven so he chose our dear Dr. Horn who devoutly administered to all in his care while on loan to us here on earth. You will be missed.  Prayers for you and your family.

With Love and prayers to the family of our dear friend, Dr.
Horn who cared for our family while we lived in Chicago and remained in touch with us after we moved to Florida 30 years ago.  We will miss his Christmas letters, but will remember him and his family via the daily prayer list.  God Bless!

i walked into your office in 1969 and not only found a great dr.but i found a friend forever.you will be missed...may god bless you and your family.....

POPPA FELIX
Felix M Horn, M.D. 1920 - 2013
Aaahh Poppa - how  I have dreaded this day, to feebly attempt the impossible, to try and eulogize a life so great, so indescribable no one - certainly not me - can hope to find the right words.  But to me your life demands it and I want to try.
Poppa first and foremost I thank God for you.  For giving me the opportunity to be sure throughout your life you knew you were,  you are, you always will be my best friend.  Of course everyone in your family and your extended family feels the same way about you. You gave me that special gift no child can be sure of but every child needs, unconditional love.  But you gave that gift to all of us. And that would have been enough, but you didn't stop there. Like a divining rod to our souls, you found our best quality, convinced us it was real – and you believed in us.   And without intending to you mentored us through your greatness, by seeing how you survived, thrived, and conducted your life, with unbelievable steely principles and intractable righteousness.  Yes we may not be able to live up to that, but we would move heaven and earth to try. 
We reveled in being with you, your contagious joy of life, even how you knew exactly how to needle each of us and embarrass us sort of, kind of tweak us –and we were comforted to be in your presence. You are a true patriarch. We looked at hundreds of pictures of you the last few days, and even I did not realize – you have us smiling or laughing in virtually every single picture, helping us get the best out of life every minute. Then there are the pictures of your past. Your beautiful parents, and sister. And the stages of your life. In one picture you're looking over a microscope like a microbiologist, in another you literally look like a dashing Frank Sinatra, in another you were a pall bearer carrying the re-exhumed body of Theodore Herzl for burial in Israel, a great honor bestowed upon you and a picture up at Yad Vashem.  When you hugged your grandchildren as babies your face shines with the beauty of a man at peace and love. As we recounted your amazing stories we realized what a leader you are, how many clubs you formed, contests you won, sports you participated in. 
You were not just my father, not just Linda's father, you were father to all who loved you.  To Laura and Dean - I know, we all know he was your father too.  But he knew and he loved you back with all his heart, and that was something really special. So now it hurts, because it's supposed to.
Poppa yours was a life literally stolen from you in the most heinous moment of human history, but as you loved to say – including by the way to strangers in your later years anytime the mood hit you – HITLER IS DEAD (pointing) and IM STILL ALIVE! You betcha poppa.  Tell it like it is. You beat all odds. God put something so magnificent inside of you that even Hitler's Nazi storm troopers feared to let you die. 
From this living nightmare, you went on to live a life of incredible fulfillment.  Your valleys in life were lower and peaks higher than anyone I've ever known, and that will to live instilled in you, that curiosity and passion was, taken in its whole, breathtaking to witness, like watching Rembrandt painting stroke after stroke and watching  as the brilliant masterpiece of your life evolved.  You were the real deal - a true renaissance man - who loved the arts and sciences, was a consummate physician practicing into his 80s, a passionate lover of music playing violin into your 90s, an incredible artist painting to almost your last days, and a riveting dancer, whose contest winning polkas were legendary, Grandma Lucy somehow staying with you step for step, stopping everyone in their tracks to watch,  you like a Flamenco dancer flying  around the room with those staccato stomping kicks as you twirled and flew, with a panache virtually no one had ever seen.  Because you were making a statement.  You were alive truly alive – and Hitler was dead.  You were a European gentlemen, through and through. 
Steeled by history, molded by the iron fist of God who had bigger plans for you, you transformed everyone who met you, yet you were so humble, so transformed as well by every single person whose life you touched. 
We knew how much you suffered  to persevere.  You missed the parents you lost, the sister you loved so dearly. Your marriage began out of suffering. It was not arranged by your choice, or a fix up, by your parents, or by J date – no, by the ravages and circumstances and brutality of war.  And yet who today could hope to find a life partner to love and so cherish for 70 years, married in the Warsaw ghetto to a young bride of 16?  Can we even imagine it? Watching you two together for 70 years was like watching two beating hearts that fought and loved and would be together forever,  literally destined to be one . Even after 70 years of marriage, you still had one singular task on this earth – to protect mom. Wow Poppa. 
One of the last incredible moments we had with you was the day before you died when you were as alert and sharp as ever with us for what seemed like hours.  You lived on your terms to literally the last day of your life here on this earth.  Yes yours is a spirit that transcends our problems, that will truly be with us to our last days and in your grandchildren and in their children.
A day before you died you had a premonition. You woke up, I was sitting there, and you looked at me and smiled. And literally like it was a walk in the park and the most the most natural thing in the world, you told me you had just been floating above the room we were in - like in a cloud, with your mom and your dad and your sister. And you were happy, and I knew what was coming and only for that reason I found some peace – I was happy you could be finally released from a lifetime of suffering their loss.  You were ready because you had given all there is to give, and we were being selfish. It was time. And thankfully just like that you passed from this mortal world with a beautiful look of contentment on your face, literally angelic in death just as in life in the blink of an eye. 
Yes Poppa I already miss you.  But as soon as I do, I can conjure up that unique way you would kiss my cheek like life depended on it and wouldn't you know another magic trick from Poppa Felix that you must have known you left me - it calms me. As hard as it is for all who loved you right now, we can get together as a family - always the most important thing in your life - and literally bask in the glow of your life and what you gave to us. And just as your mother made you promise to finish medical school war or no war, and you did –  you let me know what you expect out of me, and now I have to try live up to it. You are a sneaky Poppa but I will try to live up to your impossible standards.
And so Poppa– you, the man who escaped the Lublin Ghetto, the Warsaw Ghetto, and witnessed and survived countless atrocities, who literally had a Nazi commander choose to save your life by telling you inexplicably where to hide and when, so you would not be sent to a concentration camp, and left you  a precious meal, you who was lined up in a firing squad in a Ukrainian village, only to be saved by Russian planes strafing the mob from overhead at the last minute - you are a part of history as Dr. Ficho so beautifully and accurately told us, and we are your witnesses. You lived on your terms and have now moved on to an exalted higher place to be closer to God and your family I am sure.  
I want to remember you Poppa through something really quirky about you - Mr. Felix, as Marisha loved to call my dad.  He had a lot of funny expressions, hilarious sometimes. If he liked a meal, no matter where, it was “my compliments to the chef” on his way out the door-  even if it was McDonalds. But now Poppa - it's my turn, it's my “compliments to the chef”… to the master chef that that created you. Now Poppa, it's my turn to take your picture and send your smile to a dental magazine but this time taken from my heart of your soul, so it can be printed on my DNA and everyone in your families.  
When my dad should have died in heart and kidney failure with hours to live, because he had asked us to go all out if necessary and of course I wanted to, he had an emergency dialysis. And literally moments after it started, maybe 5 minutes at most, after we had witnessed his epic struggle to still live, he opened his eyes.  And he looked at me, and we didn't know what to expect. And as he opened his eyes he looked around and said, “I feel fine.” A pause as we stared incredulousy. “ It's working”. “You did the right thing.”  And then he looked at the dialysis technician, and he said “What's your name?” “Who's your boss? “ “You did a fine job.” “I want to write your boss a letter.”  And now Poppa it's my last turn, it's my time to write your boss a letter:
God, you created Poppa Felix. And God, you did a really fine job.
In closing I am paraphrasing my favorite poem, IF by Rudyard Kipling. All my life I wondered who could live up to its standard – and finally now I know:


If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,

Then You Have blessed the Earth and everything that's in it, 
(and Poppa you have!)
And - which is more – you'll be a man, my son!
Marisha, John,  Jerry:  your reverence and devotion to my father made his last days so much more comfortable and blessed.  And Rabbit Steve, he loved you. You were his spiritual advisor as you are to us all. Thank you.
Tanuach Beshalom Al Mishkava.  May you be at peace Poppa.  It was an honor to be your son.

Honored colleague, respected physician, a kind heart and friendly open welcome to a new doctor many years ago. Dear friend, those of us lucky enough to have been graced with your attention and affection will miss you sorely. One of a kind - they don't make 'em like that any more - a CLASSIC. Bless you, Felix, and thank you for 33 years of friendship and kindness.

Ted Zamirowski, MD
Des Plaines, IL

Tomorrow I say goodbye to the best father and teacher that ever lived. Daddy instilled a love of life, compassion, righteousness, devotion and strong work ethic in all his endeavors. I will be eternally grateful for the undying love, confidence, and support he gave me. The world has lost a special man, and I a great friend.

Felix was a part of my life for 52 years as the father of my best friend, his daughter Linda.  He will always remain in my heart, and I wish him peace.  I know he will continue to feel the love of family wherever he is.

Tragically, violence is often delivered out of ignorance.  Education is the key to dispel ignorance.  It is also fundamental to hope, which helped Dr. Horn survive.  The Bible educates us to the fact that God knows our pain and will soon eliminate it (2 Chronicles 6:29).  May this hope help the family not just survive, but to thrive!

Dr. Horn took care of our family for many years from his office on Harlem Ave. He was the best! May his memory be eternal

Few were told how Felix survived WWII- his parents gave him to a catholic family to avoid the concentration camp. He later acknowledged his jewish traditions and roots ..he was well loved at Holy Family, a catholic hospital. He spoke many languages including latin and participated in prayer with ecumenical respect for all who suffered the holocaust..as a fellow physician-he was truly a wise healer and mentor ..with respect, Donald L.Meccia, MD

I'm sorry to read about your loss. May God help you to endure as we look forward to when "death is no more."

Our deepest sympathy to the family of Dr. Horn.  He was our doctor for many years and delivered all three of our sons.  He will always have a special place in our hearts. Rich and Geri Kolaczewski

Felix has always held a very special place in my heart.  Luci and he were an amazing couple and an extraordinary example of charactor, stick to itness and compassion.  I am so very proud to call them our friends.  Over the next days we will be there to support the family in any way we are able.  much love,  Michael Tepper

OBITUARY

Felix M. Horn M.D.

August 8, 1920 – March 17, 2013

Weinstein & Piser Funeral Home

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