Zoltan Weisz (1915-2002) was born in Baia Mare, Romania to Jakob (1884-1918) and Golda Weisz (née Herskovits, 1886-1944). He had 3 brothers, Béla, Géza (1905-1944), and Asher (1912-), and 4 sisters, Annus (1907-1994), Ileana (1908-1944), Sarah (1918-1944), and Rachel (1903-1944). The family moved several times when Zoltan was a child. Sometime during the 1930s, his brother Asher moved to Palestine, but the rest of his family remained in Baia Mare. By the mid-1930s, Zoltan ran a fruit wholesale business. After the war began, Baia Mare was occupied by Hungary, and Zoltan was drafted into a Hungarian forced labor battalion by 1943 or 1944. When he returned home by October, 1944 his house was empty, and he later learned that 82 members of his extended family had been deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp and perished. Among them were his mother Golda, his brothers Béla and Géza, and his sisters Rachel, Ileana, and Sarah. After the war, he rebuilt his wholesale fruit business in Baia Mare. He met Gisela Bleier in 1945, and they were soon married and had a son, Peter (1947-). His business failed, and by 1949 they had moved to Vienna, Austria. They immigrated to the United States in 1951 aboard the S.S. General Blatchford, and settled in Indianapolis, Indiana. Gisela Weisz (née Bleier, 1928-2006) was born in Budapest, Hungary to Sándor (1893-1976) and Blanka (b. 1903) Bleier. She had one brother, Andrew. Her parents owned a restaurant in Budapest until 1939 when anti-Jewish business laws forced them to close. After Hungary was occupied by the Nazis in March 1944, they lost their home and were sent to the ghetto. Gisela was sent to a forced labor camp at Ferihegy, and her father was sent to a different camp. After about 2 months, she escaped from the labor camp, and went back to Budapest. Gisela went to the Swiss Consulate and received a protective passport (schutzpass) that would enable her to immigrate to Switzerland and serve as a protective document. She was also able to get refuge in the Glass House which sheltered around 2000 Jews until Budapest was liberated by the Russians in February 1945. After the war, she was reunited with her family who all survived. Due to poor conditions and lack of food, Gisela left and traveled to Baia Mare where she met Zoltan Weisz.
Bleier and Weisz families papers
boxes oversize folders 2 4
The collection documents the Holocaust experiences of the Bleier family of Budapest, Hungary and the Weisz family of Baia Mare, Romania. Included are biographical papers, correspondence, immigration documents, writings, clippings, and photographs. The material primarily focuses on the wartime and post-war experiences of Zoltan Weisz and Gisela Bleier, who met and married in Baia Mare after the war. The biographical material primarily contains identification papers, genealogy research, and birth, marriage, and death certificates. Included with the biographical material are exhibition and presentation materials of Gisela Weisz that make use of family documents to tell her story. This material contains her original document from the Swiss embassy in Hungary that granted her permission to immigrate to Switzerland in 1944. The immigration papers primarily document Gisela, Zoltan, and Peter Weisz’s immigration to the United States in 1951. The correspondence includes letters of Zoltan’s brother Asher (Lajos) and his wife Nika in Palestine. Some of the letters are from Zoltan’s cousin Geza in Baia Mare asking for help to get out of Romania. There is also a letter from Zoltan to Asher and Nika in 1946 where he discusses the fates of family members. The photographs primarily contain pre-war and post-war family photographs, but also include depictions of Zoltan’s wholesale fruit business. The writings contain copies and drafts of articles written by Gisela about her Holocaust experiences for newspapers and other publications, as well as clippings and interviews. The writings by others contain copies of poetry written during the Holocaust and a personal narrative of relative Jenö Fliegman.
The collection is arranged alphabetically as five series.Series 1. Biographical material, circa 1898-1994; Series 2. Immigration papers, 1944-1957; Series 3. Correspondence, 1939-1998; Series 4. Photographs, circa 1920-1965; Series 5. Writings, 1903-2005.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum