Family

Bertold Paul Wiesner was born in Marchegg, east of Vienna and on the Slovakian border. His birth certificate^[ref] reads:

The undersigned hereby confirms that according to the Birth Registration Procedure of the Jewish Community in Vienna (Floridsdorf), registration no. 74 fol. 108 Berthold Paul Wiesner On 24th July 1901 – twenty-fourth day of July in the year nineteen hundred and one – was born as firstborn son to Heinrich Wiesner and to Paula nee Kohorn. In Vienna (crossed out) Marchegg. Vienna, this 26th day of July 1924. Register Office of the Jewish Community in Vienna. Signed……….. Registrar and Commissioner for Oaths Tax: Fl. 20.000 Stamp: Fl. 2000 Total: Fl. 22.000

Carole M. translated the certificate and comments: "The 'pidyon haben' or redemption of the first-born son is a mitzvah in Judaism whereby a Jewish firstborn son is "redeemed" by use of silver coins from his birth-state of sanctity, i.e. from being predestined by his firstborn status to serve as a priest.

"Judging from the birth certificate I would say that BPW’s parents (Heinrich Wiesner and Paula Kohorn) were indeed observant Jews. They were part of a Jewish community which had established itself in a country which was, after all, not deemed to be ‘theirs’. The diaspora had rendered them landless, nationless. So their religion was their unifying bond, their identity."

His parents were both of Czech origin. His father, Heinrich Wiesner, was born on June 3, 1867 in Damborice, south east of Brno, and there is a large Jewish cemetery above the town with a number of Wiesner graves. Later they moved to Bučovice, an hour’s train ride to the east of Brno, which was a little bigger than Damborice but still very rural. Heinrich’s parents, Samuel Leopold Wiesner and Katerina Morawetz, (who are buried in the peaceful and overgrown cemetery in Bučovice had 8 other children, all of whom apart from Heinrich and Siegmund were born in Bučovice. We don’t know much about the daily life of the family, although Samuel was an active leader of the Bučovice Jewish population. There was a large synagogue which was only demolished in the early 1960’s and the name of Wiesner occurs in some documentation which can be seen in the entrance lobby of the cemetery.

There were eight siblings in the family; Heinrich was the oldest son. After him came Sigmund, born on 30 November 1868. He married Henriette Jindriska (‘Jetty’) and they had one daughter, Katerine. He was murdered in Terezin (Theresienstadt) on 25 October 1942. Jetty was murdered in Auschwitz in 1943. Katerine was murdered in Terezin in 1942 at the age of 38.

His brother Julius Wiesner was born on 4 August 1870, and married Olga Tausikova on 1 September 1901. They had two children and lived in Prague at Waldhauserova 10. He was transported to Terezin and then murdered in Auschwitz in 1942 ( Ref: Transport AA 138 Prague- Terezin, 06/07/1942; Transport 789 Terezin-Auschwitz 26/10/1942). Olgo died in Terezin in 1942. His sister, Ernestinn was born in 1872 but we don’t know where or when she died. His next brother Benjamin Johann was born on 29 January 1874 and he was murdered in Treblinka on 19 September 1942.

Next came Matilde Machle, born in 1877. We know nothing about her life (as yet). His sister, Bertha Breindel, was born in 1879. She married a Mr. S. Palek, and died in 1916 in Vienna.

Next came Ella Lea Wiesner who was born on 4 December 1882. She married a Mr. Arnstein; they had two sons (Gerhult, b. 1906, d.1976, and Stefan, b. 1908, d.1988 who had a son called Gustavo). Ella was murdered at the Jungfernhot death camp, in Riga, Latvia in January 1942 at the age of 59.

Jekla Lea Wiesner was born in 1882 but we have no other details about her life. In 1887, Heinrich married Paula Kohorn in Stedra, West Bohemia, Czechoslovakia (south west of Karlovy Vary and Mariánské Lázně), which is now a small village but was then a thriving town with a number of rural based industries.

Paula’s father, Karl Kohorn, came from a family of 9 children: he was born in 1844. Her mother, Anna Goldman Kohorn, was born in 1855 in Brlozec, a small hamlet a few kilometres to the east of Stedra. Karl was the Imperial Postmaster in Stedra, and they lived at House number 47, which was and still is attached to the north end of Stedra Castle. They had four children, all of whom were born in Stedra.

Paula was the oldest in the Kohorn family; the second child, Adele was born in 1877, and she married Dr. Emmanuel Deutsch. They had two daughters, Lili (b. 1905, she married Michael Rabinovitch and they had one daughter Ruth who was born in 1940) and then Amelie (b. 1909, d. 1975 in Israel). Adele died in 1918, possibly of the so-called ‘Spanish flu’.

Hugo was Paula’s only brother. He was born in 1878 and became a lawyer, living in Vienna until just before the war when BPW helped him escape to Britain. He lived the last years of his life mostly on Skye at the Wiesner/Barton family home, Corrie Lodge just outside Broadford on Skye, and Jonathan remembers Uncle Hugo with great affection. He did not marry. Ida was the youngest of the family. She was born in 1881 and was murdered in Terezin in 1944. She had one daughter, Marianne Koller.

Paula and Heinrich had two children, Bertold and Katerina (“Kitty”) who was born on June 28, 1902. We don’t know what led them to move to Austria from Czechoslovakia, and we have no information about their lives before the First World War, but they must have moved to Marchegg before 1901, as BPW was born there. During the war it appears that Heinrich was a nurse or hospital orderly, as a postcard from him (showing him on the front row, second from left) says: "Here are the sick from my room. Reserve hospital. Abt VII Bezirk II Zim(m)er St Pölten" (Abt. = Abteilung = Department, Bezirk is the district), in which he is wearing a white coat like the other Nursing Staff. It's written in the old Kurrentschrift, the handwriting which was used till World War Two.

In 1919 they were living in a large house at the edge of Marchegg but although at that time he was described as an 'Agent' working in Vienna 111 (as shown on the enrolment card for BPW’s enrolment card for the second semester of the University of Vienna). It is likely that he was a merchant (or Agent) trading in grains and possibly also livestock and horses.

Sadly, Paula died on February 22, 1920 when BPW was 19 years old, and his sister Kitty was 18. They were then looked after by their maternal Uncle Hugo. Heinrich re-married and died in Vienna on July 26, 1924; he is buried at the old cemetery but in the Christian section. Paula is buried in the Jewish section of the same cemetery and the grave headstone shows the names of both her parents, Karl and Anna Kohorn.