AHC interview with Kurt Weiss.

May 19, 2015Kurt Weiss was born 2/7/1930 in Krems an der Donau, Austria. His grandfather was Joseph Popper, an adjutant to the Kaiser. The family owned a liquor manufacturing plant and nine liquor stores all over Austria, one of them in Vienna’s 16th district, Ottakring. Kurt Weiss grew up in a wealthy family, where maids and governesses took care of the household and his education. At the age of four, Kurt and his family moved from Krems to Ottakring in Vienna. After the Anschluss, his parents had to scrub streets in Vienna, and after Kristallnacht SS-troops were looking for Kurt’s father, who had hidden on a farm in the 22nd district in the outskirts of Vienna. His family joined him there for three months, before they acquired emigration papers and left for Zurich by train. They stayed there for several months, before going on to le Havre and embarking on the “President Roosevelt” for New York. A randomly chosen pickle dealer, picked from a Manhattan phonebook, had provided affidavits for the US.They arrived on August 12th, 1939. Their first shelter was provided by HIAS. Kurt Weiss worked for a blind man’s fruit stand, whilst his father painted fire escapes. The Weiss family settled in the Bronx. After attending DeWitt High School, Kurt Weiss enrolled at City College; in 1953 he earned his Bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering. He was drafted from 1953 to 1956 and then embarked on his career in the chemical industry, working for a corporation in Ludwigshafen, Germany that produced Styrofoam. Kurt Weiss retired in 1989 to Monroe, New Jersey.Austrian Heritage Collectio