Karla Andělová-Weisová

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Karla Andělová-Weisová (birth name Karla Andělová even Karla Andělová-Weiss , Karla Weisová * 1908 in the Kingdom of Bohemia , Austria-Hungary ; † 27. June 1984 in California , USA ) was a Czech seamstress who of the memorial Yad Vashem as Righteous among the peoples was honored.

Life

Karla Andělová was trained as a seamstress. She was of the Catholic faith. Andělová opened a tailoring salon in Prague. In the mid-1930s she met the widower Ferdinand Weiss, who ran an orthopedic shoe shop. Weiss was of Jewish origin and came from Transcarpathia . Over the years they became close friends. They traveled together in the company of Weiss' Jewish friends.

After the German Wehrmacht invaded the Czecho-Slovak Republic on March 15, 1939 and subsequently incorporated into the Nazi state , Weiss had to give up his business because he was Jewish. Andělová employed him in her salon. Karla Andělová and Ferdinand Weiss joined the resistance against the National Socialists . When they were out, their apartment was used for writing and copying anti-Nazi materials. Andělová also kept the property of deported Jews in her apartment . Over time, she hid 200 Jews in her basement. A friend of Karla betrayed her out of jealousy to the Nazis. One day the Gestapo broke into the apartment and arrested Karla Andělová and Ferdinand Weiss. During her pre-trial detention, Andělová convinced Ferdinand to put all the blame on her. They assumed that Andělová, as a non-Jew , would be punished less severely by the Nazis than Weiss as a Jew. Weiss agreed, denied involvement and was released from custody. Andělová was tortured for divulging information about her resistance activities. In the process, her hip became so dislocated that she hobbled for the rest of her life. Eventually Andělová was sentenced to three and a half years in prison. She spent nine months in Pankrác Prison in Prague . Then Andělová was taken to prisons in Dresden and Waldheim . However, after serving her sentence, the Gestapo did not release Andělová. She was taken to the Gestapo Prison Small Fortress in Theresienstadt . From there, Andělová was transported to the Ravensbrück women's concentration camp . Here Karla Andělová met a young Jewish boy whose parents had died in the camp. She took him under her protective wings, looked after him and provided him with food. Andělová had met Jewish women in the concentration camp whom she had helped in Prague. They gave her the nickname "Andělka" (German angel ) because of their helpfulness . In April 1945 the Ravensbrück concentration camp was liberated by Soviet troops. Some time later Andělová was released by the Soviet occupation authorities.

After the war, Andělová took the boy to Prague. Ferdinand Weiss found Karla Andělová's name on a list of survivors in the newspaper, and they met again in Prague. He was taken to the Theresienstadt concentration camp at the end of 1941 . After that he was in several other concentration camps and was liberated in Friedland on May 6, 1945.

Karla Andělová and Ferdinand Weiss married in 1945 and later emigrated to Israel. Their daughter Libushe was born there. They later emigrated to the USA. Karla Andělová-Weisová died in a nursing home in California.

Memorial plaque for Karla Andělová-Weisová in Yad Vashem

On May 30, 1978, Karla Andělová-Weisová was honored as Righteous Among the Nations by the Yad Vashem Memorial to the Martyrs and Heroes of the State of Israel in the Holocaust , an honorary title for non-Jewish individuals who committed their lives under National Socialist rule during World War II To save Jews from murder. In her honor, a tree was planted in the avenue of the Righteous Among the Nations.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Weiss Karla (Andelová). In: righteous.yadvashem.org. Retrieved May 22, 2020 (English).
  2. ↑ Christopher's Expat Adventure: Karla Andělová-Weisová. In: chrisinbrnocr.blogspot.com. Retrieved May 22, 2020 (English).
  3. ↑ a b Christopher's Expat Adventure: A Couple of Czech Heroes. In: chrisinbrnocr.blogspot.com. Retrieved May 22, 2020 (English).
  4. ↑ Karla Weissová-Andělová 1906. Karla Weissová, švadlena, která zachránila malého židovského chlapce v Terezíně. In: Gariwo - Zahrada Spravedlivých. Retrieved May 22, 2020 (Czech).
  5. ↑ Righteous Among the Nations from Czech Republic Honored by Yad Vashem by 1 January 2019 (PDF; 326.4 kB) In: yadvashem.org. Retrieved May 22, 2020 (English).
  6. ^ The Dedication of the Avenue of the Righteous Among the Nations. “Drops of Love in an Ocean of Poison”. In: yadvashem.org. Retrieved May 22, 2020 (English).

literature

  • Miroslava Ludvíková: Darovane zivoty: Pribehy ceskych a moravskych Spravedlivych mezi narody . Gaudeamus, 2007, ISBN 978-80-7041-382-1 (Czech).
personal data
SURNAME Andělová-Weisová, Karla
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Andělová, Karla; Andelova-Weiss, Karla; Weisová, Karla
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Czech seamstress, Righteous Among the Nations
DATE OF BIRTH 1908
PLACE OF BIRTH Kingdom of Bohemia , Austria-Hungary
DATE OF DEATH June 27, 1984
Place of death California , USA