a letter to the stars

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Walter Weitzmann

geb. 1926, USA

I was born in Vienna 14 August 1926 to loving parents of the middle class. My father was Jewish my mother not. My mother promised that my sister and I would be raised in the Jewish faith which was done. We had a comfortable life, going to school, playing in parks, and summer vacations on farms. In December 1936 my (our) father died after a long illness. Naturally life changed and then in March 1938 when Germany annexed (Anschluss) Austria to Germany that turned our lives around. As Jews we could no longer go to the same schools, were not allowed in parks, and former friends spit on me and hit me. My mother after consulting with people found out that we could leave Vienna with a Kindertransport to France. Our names were placed on a list by the Kultusgemeinde and on March 14, 1939 we left our mother and Vienna for Paris, France. In France we were sponsored by the Rothschild family who took in 13 Jewish children from Austria and Germany. We were well taken care of until June 1940 when the Germans were close to Paris. We were evacuated from Paris to La Bourboule in the central part of France which became part of unoccupied France (Vichy France). In 1941 (August) my sister and I were told we were to go to America and so on September 1, 1941 we arrived in the USA. I was placed with foster parents in Minneapolis, Minnesota, went to school and was drafted in the army in 1945. Was on my way to the Pacific Theater when the war with Japan ended on my birthday. While in Japan on occupation duty I decided to enlist for three years so I could come to Europe and be reunited with my mother who survived World War II. And so it came to be in July 1946 after more than 7 years separation, I left when I was 12 years and came back when I was almost 20. It is said one learns from past history which I find hard to believe with what has and is going on in the world. I also believe that we were victims of the Holocaust but in my thinking my mother was more of a victim.

Family members, who were murdered:

• Aunt Antonia ZIFFER, son Erwin,
his wife and two children
murdered in Auschwitz.
One son survived.
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