Joseph and Margaret Weiss family papers

The Joseph and Margaret Weiss family papers include correspondence, writings, genealogical materials, newspaper clippings, cardboard tags, and photographs documenting Joseph and Margaret Weiss’s immigration to the United States from Vienna via Czechoslovakia, France, and England in 1939 and their efforts to help their mothers emigrate from Prague and Vienna. Most of the correspondence is between the Weisses and their mothers Mathilde Goldstein in Vienna and Olga Weiss in Prague. Correspondence with Mathilde Goldstein sometimes includes Mathilde’s niece Bertha Reichmann, and correspondence with Olga Weiss sometimes includes the family of Olga’s brother in law Arnošt Pachner. The files include photographs of Olga Weiss’s last letters to Arnošt and Artur Pachner from Theresienstadt and Izbica. Additional correspondents include family members and friends. The correspondence describes life in America, Czechoslovakia, and Austria, documents immigration efforts, and traces the travel plans, welfare, and fates of relatives and friends. Writings include autobiographical narratives by Joseph and Margaret Weiss as well as unattributed essays, poems, and notes that were probably also written by the Weisses. Genealogical materials include family trees and family history. Clippings from American, Austrian, and Czech newspapers document anti-Jewish regulations imposed in Czechoslovakia and deportations of Jews from Austria. The collection also includes two cardboard tags bearing Joseph Weiss’s name. Photographs include three black and white snapshots of two memorial stones for Alfred and Moritz Goldstein and Sophie and Max Weiss, who died before the war, and Mathilde Goldstein and Olga Weiss, who perished in the Holocaust. Joseph Weiss (1903-1986) was born in Vienna and married Margaret Goldstein (1903-1983), with whom he worked at the Anglo-Austrian Bank (later Anglo-International Bank). In July 1938 they left Austria for Czechoslovakia with Joseph’s mother, Olga Weiss (1882-1942), and stayed with relatives in Německý Brod (now Havlíčkův Brod). In December Joseph and Margaret traveled to Paris and then London where, in January 1939, they boarded SS President Harrison for New York. They arrived in the United States in February and settled in Indiana. Olga Weiss soon moved to Prague, was transported to Theresienstadt on January 30, 1942, deported to Izbica on March 17, 1942, and did not survive. Margaret’s mother, Mathilde Goldstein (1870-1942) had remained in Vienna and was deported to Theresienstadt on July 14, 1942, and to Treblinka on September 21, 1942, where she was killed. Joseph Weiss’s cousin Georg Weisz emigrated to the Dominican Republic where he died of illness on September 28, 1942. Mathilde Goldstein’s niece, Bertha Reichmann (1897-1942), was deported from Vienna on October 5, 1942 to Maly Trostinec where she died October 9th, 1942. Arnošt (Ernst) Pachner (1872-1942) and Elsa Pachner (1879-1942) (Olga Weiss brother-in-law and sister) lived in Německý Brod until 1939 when they were forced to move to Prague. They were transported to Theresienstadt on May 15, 1942, then to Treblinka on October 19, 1942, where they are believed to have been killed immediately. Arnošt’s brother Artur Pachner (1874-1944) and his wife Gabriela (Ella) Pachner (1881-1944) were transported to Theresienstadt on December 5, 1942, and then deported to Auschwitz on December 18, 1943. Artur died there in January 1944 and Ella was killed a few months later. Another relative, Hermine Brodheim (1883-1942), was deported from Vienna to Maly Trostinec on August 31, 1942 and was killed on September 4th, 1942.