King University Presents, Martin Weiss, Holocaust Survivor

Holocaust survivor Martin Weiss, who withstood the Auschwitz-Birkenau and Mauthausen concentration camps, will share his story on Monday, Feb. 29 at King University’s Memorial Chapel in Bristol, Tenn., at 9:15 a.m., and again that evening at 7 p.m., at King’s Hardin Valley campus located at 10950 Spring Bluff Way, Knoxville, Tenn. The event is part of the King University Institute for Faith and Culture’s 2015-16 Lecture Series and is co-sponsored by the Bristol Herald Courier.
 

Martin Weiss was born in Jan. 1929 in Polana, Czechoslovakia to Orthodox Jewish parents Jacob and Golda Weiss. He was one of nine children. When Nazi Germany and its allies dismantled Czechoslovakia in 1939, Weiss’ life changed dramatically. Two brothers were conscripted into slave labor battalions and sent to the Russian front.

In April 1944, Weiss and his remaining family were transported to the Munkacs Ghetto, then moved to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in May 1944, where Marty, his brother Moshe, his sister Cilia, their father Jacob, and two uncles were selected for slave labor. The rest of their family was killed upon arrival. After a brief stay at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Martin and his father were sent to Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria, where his father would die from exhaustion and starvation. Weiss was liberated in May 5, 1945.

Martin Weiss arrived in New York in 1946, after his sister Ellen, who had immigrated to the United States in 1939, arranged U.S. visas for him, brother Mendl, sister Cilia, and her husband Fred.

Weiss served in the United States Army during the Korean War before entering the grocery business in 1955. In 1957, he married Joan Merlis. They have two children and four grandchildren. He has been volunteering at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum since 1998.

The events are free and open to the public. For more information, visit http://faithandculture.king.edu or contact Dr. Shannon Harris at svharris@king.edu, 423-652-4836, or 423-747-3524.