In May 2025 we returned to Europe for an intensive 3+ week genealogy research expedition across six countries: Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, and Austria. (Well, Slovakia was an add-in for a couple days “down time” in Bratislava.) In Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic, we once again traveled with cousin Wolfgang Weissler.
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For a full report of our genealogy efforts on this trip, visit our family history website, weisslerheingenealogy.wordpress.com.
Our trip began in Berlin, where we made some cemetery and site visits with Wolfgang before attending a Stolpersteine (“stumbling stone”) ceremony for Wolfgang’s grandfather Georg Friedrich “Fritz” Weissler in Magdeburg, in front of the courthouse where he once worked before losing his position in 1936. (Fritz was ultimately murdered at Sachsenhausen in 1937; his full story is available on our family history website.) The ceremony was well attended and Wolfgang’s speech was very moving (watch the video, subtitled). That day concluded in nearby Halle an der Saale, visiting with friends, and revisiting the graves of Robert’s grandparents Otto and Margret in the Nordfriedhof.
We continued into Poland, visiting towns Wrocław (Breslau) and Chorzów (Königshütte), as well as a few not initially on our agenda other than a drive-by, thinking there was little to see: Kępno (Kempen), Olesno (Rosenberg), Pszczyna (Pleß), and Żory (Sohrau). While we accomplished what we hoped for in Wrocław and Chorzów, the extra stops held unexpected surprises. In a small museum in Kępno, a display held a page of a newspaper from February 1884 with a council report by Dr. Leopold Hayn, Robert and Wolfgang’s second great-grandfather. Olesno also had a small museum with some very helpful staff who provided us with literature in English, and let us borrow a large map of Upper Silesia from 1921 to take to a nearby print shop to be scanned and copied.
Our visit to a cemetery in Pszczyna resulted in our meeting cemetery restoration expert Sławomir (Sławek) Pastuszka. Sławek not only gave us precise information on who we sought in Żory while we were driving there (Rabbi David Deutsch and his wife Jettel Weissler, sister of Robert and Wolfgang’s second great-grandfather Salomon Weissler), but also met with us back in Pszczyna. He then accompanied us to Mikołów to see five recently restored Weissler headstones, saying we were the first visitors to see the completed restoration work, and better yet all Weisslers! (Indeed, photos we had seen taken last year showed them lying on the ground.) Our meeting with Sławek also resulted in our contacting Danny Weissler, a (new to us) relative in Israel, and Larysa Michalska, a researcher in Gliwice.
In the Czech Republic, most of our effort focused on the old Jewish cemetery in Osoblaha (Hotzenplotz). Last year we worked hard to identify a handful of family headstones from photographs on the chewra.com website. This year we had a numbered map by Czech historian Jaroslav Klenovský (who we later met in Brno), and photographed the entire cemetery – ~420 headstones and fragments, including only 5 or 6 not on the map or moved from original positions.
We parted company with Wolfgang in Brno and continued on by train to Budapest, Bratislava, and finally Vienna. In Budapest among other things we intended to visit the Kozma cemetery to look for a Weissler, as well as visit the grand synagogue there (which Rick Steves said a cynic called “the finest Catholic synagogue in Europe”), but our stay in Budapest coincided nearly exactly with their closing hours, Friday afternoon to Sunday morning. Oops. (As we found out later, the person we sought in the Kozma cemetery, a headstone no longer exists, so nothing to see.) We did enjoy a piano concert at the Franz Liszt Museum, and met another pianist, Adrien Ramos, who turns out is from Los Angeles, went to USC, and his parents went to Robert’s high school!
Bratislava was truly just to have a couple days “off” and visit a city neither of us had been to (somehow Liza thought Robert had been there 45 years ago, but no). Charming city and well worth a visit.
In Vienna we (of course) visited the very large central cemetery – a cemetery so large it’s faster to take the streetcar between the entrances than it is to walk. Besides the two Jewish sections with graves of interest at opposite ends of the cemetery, we visited a lovely section in the middle with graves or monuments for composers, including Robert’s favorite Beethoven. We strolled past the Hotel Sacher, home of Sacher torte … but unlike prior visits, knew not to bother trying to get it there, as it is (IMHO) too dry and intended for unsuspecting tourists. We had last been in Vienna in 1999 with our singing group at the time, the Mansfield Chamber Singers; we have fond memories of that trip.
All in all it was a very successful trip, and the three of us had our work cut out for us upon returning home – photos to sort through, updates to ancestry.com, papers to translate, stories to write. As Wolfgang said, it will keep us very busy until the time to plan the next trip, which will focus more on the personal connections we’ve made.
Again, to see photos, click here.
Hotels we stayed in
- Grimm’s Berlin Potsdam (Teltow) – cute fairy tale theme
- Hotel Dwór Polski, Wrocław – nice location near the Rynek
- Hotel Wenecki, Częstochowa – Venetian theme, nice, only there one night
- Vienna House Easy by Wyndham, Katowice – modern, easy walk to the old town
- Hotel Cvilín, Krnov – up on the hill looking down on the town, quite nice
- EFI SPA Hotel Superior & Pivobar, Brno – across from a park, nice walking, had a car elevator (a first for us)
- K+K Hotel, Budapest – charming hotel near the Opera, many restaurants
- Marrol’s Boutique Hotel, Bratislava – favorite of the trip.
- Motel One Hauptbahnhof, Vienna – a chain, neat and functional; location at the train station was nice, good eating options nearby, easy access to public transportation
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