Arnold Weil
born Turnau (Turnov), November 4, 1877; died Auschwitz II-Birkenau, 1942
Documents associated with this person:
Husband of Rosa, née Schiff, father of Lene (Helena); sister-in-law of Jeanette Schenker.
Life Summary
Arnold Weil was born in Turnau (now Turnov, Czech Republic), son of Rosa (b. 1845, née Löwy) and Ernst (c1829–1905) Weil. Nothing is known of his childhood or education. His profession can only be guessed as perhaps attorney or accountant. Arnold married Rosa (née Schiff), sister of Jeanette Schenker, and the couple had one daughter, Lene, born December 5, 1907. They lived for much of their married life in Aussig on the Elbe (Ustí nad Labem), where Rosa and her siblings had all been born. In Fall 1938 (after the annexation of Austria) Arnold and Rosa moved to Kutná Hora, then to Prague by September 1939, where they were sharing an apartment with “the children” (presumably Lene, her first husband Max Gutmann, and first child or perhaps both children).
In 1934, Jeanette, in a (lost) letter to Rosa, evidently described Arnold as having “assumed the role that our father had played in the family,” a sentiment that Rosa heartily endorsed (OJ 14/10, [15]), saying: “What in other families a responsibly-minded brother takes on he, as a brother-in-law, has willingly taken on his shoulders, since none of our brothers is in a position, or is willing, to do so.” This involved helping family members when in difficulties, assisting in cases of illness, and delivering bad news. It was Arnold who wrote informing Jeanette of the tragic death of Klara’s son Hellmut in a climbing accident in 1932, and that of Klara herself after a long period of insanity in 1939.
Following deportation of the Jews from Bohemia, Arnold and Rosa were both transported to Auschwitz II-Birkenau, where they died in 1942.
Correspondence
Thirty-eight items of correspondence from Arnold and Rosa to Jeanette survive in OJ 14/10, of which Arnold wrote seven entirely on his own, mostly in his distinctive, debased Sütterlinschrift, signing or annotating a number of others written by Rosa. The Arnold-Rosa correspondence is of prime importance as a source of information on the Schiff family.
Source
Contributor
- Ian Bent