Wilhelm Weber

Wilhelm was David and Sophie Weber’s eldest child. He was born at 16 Schillstrasse nine months after his parents’ wedding. In 1913, the Webers and their sons Wilhelm and Arthur (born February 13, 1912) moved to 26 Neuburger Srasse.

In 1923, at his Bar-Mizwa in the great Synagogue on Halderstrasse, Wilhelm was called to the Thora. We know from his youngest brother Sigmund (Sigi), that on Shabbat and on the holidays, the family normally went to the small Shul (Synagogue) in Kriegshaber, because there it was more traditional.

In 1927/1928, Wilhelm completed a commercial apprenticeship in Zerbst in Sachsen-Anhalt. In 1905, the local Jewish Community had inaugurated a new Synagogue. Then, for a short time, Wilhelm was again registered as living with his parents in Lechhausen. For two months, he stayed in Dorndorf, presumably the village south of Ulm. Then, in 1932, along with his parents and, meanwhile, three siblings, he moved to 8 Waterloo-Strasse. Where he had worked in between and whether he was working in his parents’ menswear-store, we do not know.

In 1933, Wilhelm moved to France. In his report card, the de-registration to Chaumont in April 1934 has been entered. In France, there are five communities with this name and ten more with a name affix. Where exactly Wilhelm found his first refuge after the Nazis assumed power, remains unclear.

Already in 1935, Wilhelm moved to Cape Town, South Africa. In the years 1933 to 1936, 3’600 German Jews emigrated there. When in 1936, the steamer “Stuttgart” with 500 German Jews docked in Cape Town, antisemitic protests of the so-called “Greyshirts” occurred, kindled by a South African Nazi-party. Also the immigration laws were tightened. In July 1939, however, his parents still managed to escape from Germany.

Through the circulars of the Augsburg Rabbi Ernst Jacob who had emigrated to the USA we have information about the Webers and also about Wilhelm. In March 1942, Jacob writes that the two eldest Weber sons are in South Africa. Wilhelm and Arthur jointly managed a store for men’s and children’s clothing, later a factory for workwear named “Dafna Overalls”.

Wilhelm married Rosette Schinasi (born in 1912) and had two children with her, Maurice (born in 1948) and Sophie (born in 1951). Whether his wife was related to Moise Schinasi, born in Smyrna in 1907 and deported from France, we can only assume.

Wilhelm died in Cape Town in 1996.
Ruth Sander, translation by Michael Bernheim