gb-003348-wl1901
type: RecordSet
biographical history: Bertha (formerly Breindel) Weiss née Rubin was born 20 May 1890 in Tarnów, Poland. She moved to Berlin and worked as a seamstress. There she met and married Karl (formerly Kalman) Weiss (born 24 April 1883) who was a tailor. They founded two menswear stores. They had one daughter, Else, born 1 April 1914, who eventually managed one of the stores. Her mother managed the other. The businesses were quite successful except for the period during the depression. During the Nazi era Else along with her betrothed suffered anti-Semitic attacks in the street. The first resulted in hospitalisation of several weeks for her husband. The second time they were saved from a more severe assault by one of their employees. Shortly thereafter the couple immigrated to Palestine. Their son Yehuda Erdman was born in Jerusalem. In 1957 the family immigrated to the UK. Bertha and Karl left Berlin in 1938. They had sufficient capital to buy a property and they made a living from letting it out. Karl died in 1949 in Jerusalem. In 1964 Bertha followed Else and family to the UK where she spent the rest of her life. Whilst she could speak Yiddish, Polish and German she never learnt English or Hebrew. Bertha returned to Germany in the 1950s to pursue restitution and pension claims and after many years she was eventually successful. She died at the age of 94 in 1984.
related material: See also WL12936, WL12937, WL12938, WL12939, WL12940
conditions of access: Open
has or had holder: gb-003348
has or had identifier: 1
has or had some members with language: deu
has or had some members with language: heb
has or had some members with language: eng
has or had some members with language: pol
has record set type: Collection
identifier: WL1901
record resource extent: 1 folder
record resource structure: 1901/1 personal papers; 1901/2 papers re restitution claims
results or resulted from: 1
scope and content: This collection contains the personal papers of Bertha and Karl Weiss, Jewish former residents of Berlin whose families originated in Poland. Also contained are papers relating to various restitution and pension claims Readers need to reserve a reading room terminal to access some digital photographs
title: Bertha and Karl Weiss papers