Imre Weisz

Imre Weisz — Hebrew name Yitzchak, called Feter Isaac by his nieces and nephews — was born on 19 August 1921 in Apagy, Hungary, the eldest son of Lipot Weisz and Regina Feldman. He is the toddler in the c. 1922 Apagy photograph, standing in front of his parents. Bobby — his only sister — was born when he was nearly three years old, in April 1924. His three other brothers (Endre, Erno, Jeno) followed.

In 1941 or 1942, Imre was drafted into the Hungarian Munkaszolgálat — the forced-labor service into which Hungarian Jewish men of military age were conscripted in lieu of the regular army. The Munkaszolgálat units were sent to the Eastern Front, to mine clearance, to road work — most did not return. Imre survived. Of the four Weisz brothers in Lipot and Regina's household, only Imre came back. His three brothers — Endre, Erno, and Jeno — were murdered in 1944 with their parents. His sister Bobby survived through the camps.

After the war Imre returned to Hungary — most surviving Hungarian Jews did, hoping to rebuild — and there he met and married Erzsébet "Erzsi" Grosz (b. 30 December 1928) before May 1948. He worked as a merchant. Their first son László was born on 3 May 1948. Their second son György (later George) was born on 4 October 1956 — nineteen days before the Hungarian Revolution began.

The 1956 Revolution and its Soviet suppression meant Hungary was again no place for a Jewish family. The Weiszes fled. By December 1956, their UHIAS refugee file had been opened in Vienna; they spent approximately a year in the Vienna resettlement camp before departing on transport MIUSO H-12907 on 8 December 1957, arriving at Idlewild (now JFK) shortly after. They settled in Brooklyn — within reach of Bobby and her husband Laci, who had arrived from the other direction six years earlier. Imre's third child, Leah, was born in America.

To Bobby's children and grandchildren in Brooklyn — and to Aunt Esther's daughter Sandra in Chicago — Imre was Feter Isaac. He traveled to Chicago in 1984 for the Schon-Kiferbaum wedding, where he sat with Bobby and Aunt Esther for the family portrait — three Weisz survivors of Apagy in one frame.

Imre died in Brooklyn on 24 August 2001, aged 80.

19 AUG 1921 APAGY – 24 AUG 2001 BROOKLYN (80)