In honor of Martin Weiss a Holocaust survivor
30. In June of this year, Martin Weiss died in Maryland, USA at the age of 94, a survivor of Auschwitz and Mauthausen. He was born in 1929 in Czechoslovakia, in Ve NarkΓ‘ Po Naran.
Martin Weiss came from a very Orthodox family. His father owned a farm and a meat shop, his mother cared for a total of 7 children and a household. Everyone in the family helped take care of the horses and cows.
In 1938-1939, his life changed dramatically when Nazi Germany and his allies divided Czechoslovakia. His hometown was occupied by Hungarian troops and the Jews were exposed to discriminatory decree. Czechoslovak schools were closed and students had to learn Hungarian. All the villagers hated the new rulers and the democratic freedoms they enjoyed in Czechoslovakia disappeared.
Following the attack of the Soviet Union nazi in Germany in 1941, Hungary joined the invasion. Two of Martin's older brothers were taken to the Hungarian flags of forced labor. The family soon learned that some Jews from the area were deported to German-occupied Ukraine, where they were murdered in mass executions.
In March 1944, the Germans occupied Hungary and a few weeks later, the Hungarian Chetniks transported local Jews, including Martin's family, to the Mukachevo transit ghetto, from where they were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau in May. Martin, his father, brother, two sisters and two uncles went through the selection and were selected for forced labor, other family members, including his mother and two younger sisters, were sent to the gas chamber.
Martin and his father were sent to Mauthausen concentration camp and then to Melk branch camp, where they had to build tunnels on the side of the mountains. His father died on the job.
Martin was liberated at Gunskirchen, another of Mauthausen sub-camp, by American troops in May 1945. He returned to Czechoslovakia, where he found several surviving family members. In 1946 he emigrated to the United States with his two siblings.
Honor his memory and my deepest condolences to his large family π
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