Miniature dictionary, Le tout-petit dictionnaire Deutsch-Franzosisches, used by the Weidhorn family

Manfred Weidhorn was born on 10 October 1931 in Vienna, Austria to Aron and Anne Weidhorn. His father, Aron Weidhorn (1900-1948), was born in Rava-Ruska, Galicia (Rava-Ruska, Ukraine) to Peisach Weidhorn and Juette Freude. His family was Orthodox, and his father taught Hebrew at a yeshiva. He had an older brother and two sisters. As a young man, Aron lived in the Hague, Netherlands for three years where he was a Hebrew teacher. He moved to Vienna in 1930. Manfred’s mother, Anne Ratze Weidhorn (née Chana Gelber, 1909-2008), was born in Rava-Ruska to Elias Gelber (b. 1879) and Neschi Kurzer Spritzer (b. 1876). Her family was Orthodox, and her father owned a clothing factory. She had two sisters: Frieda and Renee.

Manfred’s parents met and married in Vienna in 1930, and he was born a year later. Aron became a business partner of his father-in-law. In 1935 Aron moved to Palestine with the intention of starting a fur business there. His family joined him in March 1936 and they lived in Haifa, Palestine (Haifa, Israel) until 1937. The family returned to Vienna, but Aron soon moved to Paris to set up a fur business there. Manfred and his mother lived with her parents in Vienna, with the idea they would join Aron in Paris after the business was established. After the German annexation of Austria in March 1938, Manfred, his mother, and her parents fled to Paris to be reunited with Aron. Aron planned to immigrate to the United States with the help of relatives in the U.S., and then bring his family over. In August 1939 the family moved to Antwerp, Belgium.

On 30 December 1939, Aron boarded the Henry Jasper and sailed to the United States using a business visa obtained while in Paris. He settled in the Bronx, New York and lived with Anne’s cousin Anshel Berger, whom he also worked for. Manfred and Anne remained in Antwerp with family until the German invasion of Belgium on 10 May 1940. They fled the city with relatives. Manfred’s relatives later returned to Antwerp, but he and his mother went back to Paris. Anne would learn after the war that both her parents perished at Auschwitz.

Aron’s business visa eventually expired. He managed to obtain an immgration visa through the American Consul in Montreal, and was readmitted to the country on 2 April 1941. Manfred and his mother fled Paris in spring 1941 to Marseille. In July 1941 Manfred and Anne secured visas to go to Cuba. They arrived in Havana, Cuba via Bilbao, Spain. After receiving their American visas, the mother and son arrived in New York in early November 1941. The reunited family settled in Brooklyn. Anne learned diamond cutting through her sister Renee, who also immigrated to the U.S., and taught the skill to Aron. Aron tried to establish himself in the furrier business, but after several years of difficulties, he eventually switched careers, and they both worked as diamond cutters.

Aron learned after the war that all his siblings perished during the Holocaust.

Manfred graduated from Columbia College in 1954. He was then drafted into the army. After he was discharged in 1956, he attended Columbia University, and received his Ph.D in English in 1963. He went on to become a professor of English Literature at Yeshiva University, and the author of several books.