Kurt Weinberg: Family and business papers
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Kurt Weinberg: Family and business papers
Kurt Wilhelm Weinberg was born on 23 July 1924. He grew up in the small town of Werther near Bielefeld in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. His father, Julius Weinberg (1887-1965), owned a tobacco factory, which Kurt's great-grandfather founded in 1877. The factory was based at Haus Werther"dem Schloss" where the Weinberg family used to live as well. The business was very successful and had 300 employees, but in 1938, Julius Weinberg was forced to sell the factory due to the Nazi anti-Jewish laws.
Shortly after the events of the November Pogrom in 1938, Julius was deported to Buchenwald, an experience that caused him to suffer from nervous breakdowns for the rest of his life. As Kurt recalls, his father often needed hospitalization and electric shock treatment.
Kurt came to England through the Kindertransport in May 1939. The Jewish Refugee Committee in Hampstead Garden Suburb served as his guarantors. When he first arrived in England, he was placed in a retirement home.
Kurt’s three siblings were able to emigrate to England through the Kindertransport as well. His older brother, Bernd (born 26 June 1922), came first to England in February 1939. When the war started, Bernd, who was by that time over 16 years old, was considered an ‘enemy alien’ due to the civilian internment policies and was transported to Canada. Later he studied Chemistry in London, Ontario. In 1950 he came back to Europe and he pursued a PhD in Cologne, Germany. Later he went back to Canada, where he passed away in 1974 after a battle with cancer.
Kurt’s twin sisters, Eva and Resi Weinberg (born 26 October 1928), found refuge in England with the help of the Quaker Community in Bournemouth. When the war started, they moved to Sibford, a small village in Oxfordshire. Soon Kurt and his parents moved to Sibford and his father found a job as a gardener in Banbury.
After the war, Kurt started working in a radio workshop near Charing Cross in London, where he learned how to repair radio sets. He later worked at a radio factory in Tottenham.
In 1949 Kurt returned to Germany for the first time and tried to sell his father's factory which had already been given back to him through restitution. He returned to England in 1954 and started his own tobacco import firm selling Dutch cigars, at Market Place, London. He sold the firm in 1974.
Kurt Weinberg: Family and business papers