Biography
Hersch Mayer Weinberg (the father of the donor) was the son of Schaja (b. 1885) and Chaia (nee Barber, b. 1887) Weinberg. Hersh was born on January 1, 1920. He had three older siblings: Mordechai, Liftcha, Ester Malka (b. @1913), and four younger ones: Tzina, Rachel, Raizel (b. 1933), Shlomo (b. 1935). Before the war Mordechai had married Minda and had two boys Yitzchak (b. 1938) and Alter (b. 1940). Ester Malka had married to Yizchok Stiel, from Hungary; Liftcha was also married. In March 1941, the Germans established a ghetto in Krakow ghetto, and many Jews were forced to work in the neighboring Plaszow concentration camp. Schaja Weinberg was incarcerated and perished there. After his death Hersch lived with his older sister and her husband, Ester and Yitchok Stiel. Because they were officially Hungarian citizens they were exempt from some of the anti-Jewish restrictions. Mordechai's two young sons, Yitzchak and Alter also lived with them, as well as a teenage cousin Brandel Paneth (the daughter of Rav Josef (the Deijer/Ilanda rebbe) and Liftcha Weinberg Paneth) who was visiting from Hungary. In June 1942, the Germans conducted a round-up in the ghetto. Most of the extended Weinberg family was caught and taken to Belzec where they were killed. Afterwards, Ester and her husband moved to Bochnia with Hersch, her two young nephews and Brandel. They lived outside the ghetto a few houses by virtue of their Hungarian papers. In 1943, Jan Malec, a Slovak smuggler contacted them. He had been sent to bring Brandel Paneth back to Hungary. Malec worked for Ben Zion Kalb, a Polish Jew in Slovakia who was actively helping Jews cross the border into Slovakia. In 1943 Malec smuggled the Stiels, Brandel, Hersch and the two young Weinberg boys across border to Slovakia in wagons laden with vegetables. Malec brought them to his home in Kezmarok near the border. From there Herch and Brandel made their way to Dej, Romania where Brandel parents' lived. Malka and Yitzchok went to Budapest. Malka placed the Yitzhak and Alter Weinberg on the Kasztner train. The train left Hungary in June 1944 and arrived in Bergen-Belsen. Six months later its passengers, including the two brothers, arrived in Switzerland.
After the war Hersch Mayer immigrated to Palestine where he worked as a diamond cutter and married Rivke Kupfer. Their daughter Shprinza (Tikva, Sabina) was born Feb. 1947 and their son Shaya was born in April 1952. A few months later they to London and then moved to Winnipeg Canada where Izak Stiel was working as a shochet. From there they moved to New York.
