Family in garden; young women in Monchengladbach

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.

Hilla's father, Wilhelm Fleischer, was a German-Jewish textile mill owner in Reichenbach. In 1929, she married a Catholic Count, Baron von Gumppenberg. They had two children, Claudia (b. Feb 8, 1930) and Johannes (b. Aug 16, 1931) and lived in Dusseldorf. Until 1940 she felt relatively safe; however, by late 1941 she decided that she was in danger and needed to leave Germany. By March 1942, with the help of people-smugglers, she crossed the border by night on foot, travelling through Belgium, then on to Lille, Paris, Dijon and in the trunk of a car over the demarcation line into Macon. She was heading for Switzerland, where she had a first cousin, but was caught by the police near Macon. Fearing that she would be sent back into occupied France and handed over to the Germans, she told her story to the police. While the police interrogation was gruelling, they believed her story and allowed her to live freely in Macon, requiring her to report to them regularly and live where they instructed. For some time this was in the Hotel de l'Europe in Macon, but later in small towns around Macon. On November 11, 1942 the Germans crossed the demarcation line, and by December of 1942 she no longer felt safe and decided to try to escape to Switzerland. She was denied entry into Switzerland. “All my arguments to stay in Switzerland, were of no avail to the Swiss officials. They … led me to the French side of the border in the middle of the night, they rang at a farmer’s house who allowed me to stay until the next morning. The farmer did everything necessary for my comfort. Early in the morning his son took me to Vulbens in a horse and cart where I could rest. In the afternoon I arrived by bus in Seyssel, where I had to stay overnight before continuing to Lyon.” In February 1943, Hilla managed to get a job with the German Army [HKP 668], and later in Toulon at Renault works until the city was liberated in August 1944. She reunited with her children in Dusseldorf on October 7, 1945. Hilla divorced her husband in 1948 and moved to the United States with her son Johannes. She later returned to Germany and died in the 1960s. Read Hilla's memoir in English at http://www.canta.org.uk/hilla.pdf

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.

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.

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.

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.