Overview
- Description
- Section 1 and 3: Eric Weyl smokes a cigarette while sitting at a table (continuation of shot in RG-60.1740 at 01:01:17). Two women outdoors in a wool coats and hats, snow on the ground, they walk along a sidewalk. The taller woman is Else Weyl, who later walks with her brother-in-law Paul Weyl, the man with spectacles. They make faces at the cameraman. Family members walk on the city street (shops, tram-lines), probably in Monchengladbach, and pose for the camera. In a park, Gertrude and her mother Elsa (Lieschen) Weyl walk down a path. They push Bernard Weyl, Eric's father, in a wheelchair. Eric and Else walk along the dirt path, followed briefly by toddler Peter running. Private garden (perhaps the home of the Bernard in Monchengladbach), he is helped into a chair by a nurse, and visited by two women. Young Peter hands the man a cane. CU, the older man, positioned in a chair. Family members pose for a picture and mill about the lawn.
01:02:39:08 Putting on a pair of skis, snow-covered mountains around modern day Karpacz. Skiing down a small hill. Skiers walk up the hill using their poles and skis, and return down the slope several times. A woman picks up ski poles, probably following an instructor's lead. Ski resort (then called Teichmannbaude, eventually became Hotel Orlenik and later private property). Riding on a small wooden sled. CUs, two women walking. Pan, snow-covered mountains. - Film Title
-
Familien Film -- Eric Weyl -- amateur
- Duration
- 00:04:15
- Date
-
Event:
circa 1928-1929
- Locale
-
Reichenbach,
Germany
Monchengladbach, Germany
- Credit
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, gift of Ruth Geall
- Contributor
-
Camera Operator:
Eric Weyl
Subject: Peter Weyl
Subject: Paul T. Weyl
Subject: Gertrude Weyl
Subject: Elsa (Lieschen) Weyl
Subject: Else Weyl
- Biography
-
Eric Weyl (1898-1968) married Else Fleischer (1904-1957) in 1923 in Reichenbach. They had two children, Klaus Peter and Doris. Eric fought for Germany in the First World War and was decorated. Else's father, Willi Fleischer, was a prominent German Jewish textile mill owner and Eric became the manager of his factory. On Kristallnacht, Eric was arrested and beaten along with other male family members. He was imprisoned for two weeks but released because of his war record. The Weyl family was forced to sell the textile factory to high Nazi officials, Guenter and Gerhard Jordan. Shortly after, they left Germany for Manchester, England where they lived with Eric's brother and reconnected with their children, Peter and Doris. In 1940, Eric was interned in the UK as a German alien, and later departed for the US. He found work as a textile engineer and consulted across the Southern US. Other Weyl and Fleischer family members also survived the Holocaust, either in hiding or outside Nazi Germany.
Klaus Peter Weyl (born May 6, 1924) lived in Reichenbach with his parents, Eric Weyl and Else Fleischer, and his sister, Doris. They were a religious family and regularly attended synagogue. In 1938, shortly after his Bar Mitzvah, Peter went to England to stay with his aunt and uncle; Doris followed on a Kindertransport; Else and her husband Eric arrived later that year. Peter went to Manchester Grammar School and was interned on his 16th birthday in 1940 in the UK as a German alien along with his father. The family eventually emigrated to the US where Peter joined the US Army and served during World War II as a translator in Germany. He later studied nuclear physics at the University of Chicago, gaining a PhD and becoming a Professor of Oceanography at SUNY Stony Brook. He married Muriel Reisman in 1948 and had three children.
Paul Weyl (1903-1976) was a general practitioner in Germany before World War II. When he was no longer able to practice medicine as a Jew around 1933, he moved to the UK with his wife Gretel Bach and two children, where he continued work as a GP.
Gertrude Weyl (1907-2002) married Paul Ross, a German-Jewish doctor. He cared for her father, Bernard, a well-off shop keeper suffering from Parkinson's disease. Gertrude and Paul and their two daughters left in 1940 for Australia.
Elsa Weyl, the mother of Eric, Paul, Gertrude, and another child who died young, lived in Muenchen Gladbach with her husband, Bernard Weyl. She was able to secure a visa to leave Germany and her son Paul begged her to come to England. She refused to leave her husband who was suffering from Parkinson's disease (he died in 1941). Elsa was killed in a concentration camp.
Else Fleischer (1904-1957) married Eric Weyl in 1923 in Reichenbach, Silesia. They had two children, Klaus Peter and Doris. Else's father, Willi Fleischer, was a prominent German Jewish textile mill owner and Eric became the manager of his factory. On Kristallnacht, the Weyl family was forced to sell the textile factory to high Nazi officials, Guenter and Gerhard Jordan. Shortly after, the couple left for Manchester, England where they lived with Eric's brother Paul and reconnected with their children who already left for England. In 1940, the family departed for the US, where they made North Carolina their home.
Physical Details
- Language
- Silent
- Genre/Form
- Amateur.
- B&W / Color
- Black & White
- Image Quality
- Fair
- Time Code
- 01:00:00:00 to 01:04:15:08
- Film Format
- Master
Master 4375.2 Film: positive - 16 mm - b&w - silent - original reversal - B-wind
Master 4375.1 Film: positive - 16 mm - b&w - print - A-wind
Master 4375.2 Film: positive - 16 mm - b&w - silent - original reversal - B-wind
Master 4375.1 Film: positive - 16 mm - b&w - print - A-wind
Master 4375.2 Film: positive - 16 mm - b&w - silent - original reversal - B-wind
Master 4375.1 Film: positive - 16 mm - b&w - print - A-wind
Master 4375.2 Film: positive - 16 mm - b&w - silent - original reversal - B-wind
Master 4375.1 Film: positive - 16 mm - b&w - print - A-wind
Rights & Restrictions
- Conditions on Access
- You do not require further permission from the Museum to access this archival media.
- Copyright
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- Conditions on Use
- The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum places no restrictions on use of this material. You do not require further permission from the Museum to reproduce or use this film footage.
- Copyright Holder
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Keywords & Subjects
Administrative Notes
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Film Provenance
- Ruth Geall, the daughter of Peter Weyl, donated more family films to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in January 2019.
- Note
- Reichenbach in Lower Silesia was considered part of Germany before World War II. It is now in Poland and the town is callled Dzierzonow.
- Film Source
- Ruth Geall
- Special Collection
-
Steven Spielberg Film and Video Archive
- Record last modified:
- 2024-02-21 08:05:20
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn700236
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Also in Eric and Else Weyl Collection
A collection of several small reels of 16mm film documenting the Weyl family, a German Jewish family living in Reichenbach (now Dzierzonow, Poland) until 1938. The family fled to England in 1938, where they survived the war, although Eric and his son Peter were interned in the UK as enemy aliens. Letters, photographs, and records about the family are part of the Wiener Library in London.
Jewish family and vacation life in Reichenbach
Film
Pan, city square with shops: "Gustav Böhm", possibly Wroclaw. Snowing. Clocktower (12:28pm). End 01:00:24 01:00:29 Side view, a woman walks towards the camera with a boy (possibly Helene Fleischer and grandchild Johannes) passing their home in the mountains. Snow. 01:01:07 INT, Else Weyl in a patterned shirt looking at a catalog. [VQ: film is scratched]. She smiles and waves for the camera. 01:01:18 INT, Eric Weyl reading a magazine in the same room, he lights a cigarette. End 01:01:28 01:01:32 Two men and a woman stand around an automobile with license plate "IK-78126 - D". The man with sunglasses is Eric Weyl; the couple may be Max and Hilla Hildebrandt. They operate a jack to fix a flat tire. Others watch from the road side. 01:01:55 A man, possibly Salo Schindler (an uncle of Peter Weyl), lounges in a chair outdoors. A different view of the Mercedes. Outside, a group of adults gather and dine, including Else Fleischer Weyl. 01:02:30 The man (Willi Fleisher?) and a boy (Peter Weyl? or Johannes?) hike. "Tannen-Baude" restaurant (maybe in Bronsdorf). The adults lounge on a grassy hill, reading. End 01:03:00 01:03:05 Woman (Else Fleischer Weyl?) dresses at the beach, possibly in the Friesian Islands where the family vacationed every summer. Pan, ship at sea with Weimar Republic flag. MS, pan of another ship with Soviet flag. End 01:04:19 01:04:20 Mountains. The group (one man and four women) dressed for winter exits a restaurant/café and climb into an automobile, perhaps on some driving tour. The standing man carries binoculars. Two local children observe the tourists. Another view of the mountains. End 01:06:06 01:06:12 INTs, a young girl selects toys from a table filled with items (and a decorated gingerbread house) during Christmas, probably in 1928. An older man (grandfather?) explains the toys to the children. EXT, LS, mountains. End 01:07:48 01:07:53 Toddler girl, Doris Weyl Pickwick, walks, crawls, plays in the garden of the family home in Reichenbach, Poland at Adama Mickiwicza 9 (the house still exists). Sandbox. Doris walks towards her smiling mother, Else Fleischer Weyl. Very brief shot of Doris, her brother Peter Weyl, and mother Else. End 01:08:52
Jewish children at play in Reichenbach and at the beach
Film
Peter (age 4 or 5) plays with a set of tin soldiers and a toy castle at home in Reichenbach. Peter's younger sister, Doris, waves. She sits in a high chair, and plays with blocks of wood. She and her brother play with a wooden clown doll. Doris in a crib, she reads a picture book. INT, Doris next to a window. 01:01:38 Peter is outside digging in a sandbox (at their home in Reichenbach at Adama Mickiwicza 9 - the house still exists), he has a scooter. Doris plays in a playpen outdoors, Peter joins her and they play. Mother Else helps Doris walk by holding her hands up. Doris sits alone on a blanket outside, trying to put on her shoes. Mother helps Doris, she cries. Peter kneels on the blanket. Doris crawls around on the lawn and approaches a woman (nanny?) in a chair. She plays in the sandbox. A lady feeds her. Peter helps Doris walk. More shots of baby Doris, unclothed and trying to walk. She eats with brother Peter, see-saw in the BG. Doris stands in a puddle in the sandbox, joined by a friend in a swimsuit, and Peter. Doris finds a toy truck, and says hi to another woman in printed dress.. 01:05:31 At the beach, Doris walks around with a flag, there is a donkey in BG. She has a watering can and a stick. Doris in a one-piece swimsuit plays by the ocean. She plays with other family members. Peter and the boy with blond-hair walks towards the shoreline, a sailboat in the distance, the young boys play in the ocean. Doris sits in the sand and plays with toys, mother? digs a hole in the sand. They continue to play in the sand and surf. 01:08:05 Four kids, including Peter and Doris, sit in front of a tent, dressed up as Indians, playing. Mock battle involving toy tomahawk, and tying a child up to a pole. 01:09:25 Doris wades in a lake, Peter with a ball. The children play in the water, pine trees surround the beach, adults lounge on the sand. 01:10:20 Back at the ocean, the Weyl kids play on the beach. A woman in a scouting outfit approaches the camera. CU, Doris looks out at the ocean through binoculars. A woman builds a sandcastle for Peter. He plays in the sand with Doris. Father Eric wearing sunglasses rests on a beach lounger. They all dig a hole in the sand.
Family in garden; young women in Monchengladbach
Film
Section 2 and 4: A young woman in a dress twirls for the camera, smiling. A different woman, Hilla Fleischer (later Hildegard von Gumppenberg), shows off her outfit in an outdoor garden. Three people (from left to right: Gertrude Weyl, mother Lieschen Weyl, and Paul Weyl), arms locked, smiling and posing (probably a continuation of the first scene in RG-60.6998 at Monchengladbach). MS, a young person in a dress jumps (possibly Leischen's niece). Peter does forward rolls. 01:00:55 Outside of the entrance to a building, a group of people gather (including Paul, Gertrude, and Leischen) and wave. Man in a suit and glasses reads a book to two women. 01:01:21 Else Weyl on right in flowery dress with a woman and a man in knickers walking down a wooded path. An older man with a camera around his shoulder joins the two women (replacing the younger fellow). Else and Eric (on right). Else carries her shoes on a stick thats sits over her shoulder, she laughs at the camera. She dips her feet into a stream, and knocks around some rocks, and dries her feet. The young man playfully tugs at her undergarments, and helps her stand with a cane as she finishes dressing. Side view of Eric's father Bernard Weyl, the older bald man with glasses, talking to somebody off camera.
