11 I 1903, Vítkovice (today’s Czechia) — 6 X 1944, KL Auschwitz-Birkenau
Ilse Weber wrote poems, songs, stories, and radio programs for children in both German and Czech. In the Terezín Ghetto (Theresienstadt), she acted as a nurse, taking care of the many children there. She continued to write poems in the ghetto.
She was born on 11 January 1903 in Witkowice near Ostrava (today’s Czechia) with the surname Herlinger. She began writing at an early age and created short stories for children which quickly made her popular. In 1930, she married Willi Weber and moved to Prague, where she worked for Czech Radio, while her writings were published in children’s magazines. In her works, she tried to combine elements of all the cultures that were close to her heart, namely Jewish, Czech, and German.
In 1939, during the Nazi occupation, she managed to send her older son, Hanuš, to England as part of the children rescue known as Kindertransport (German for “child transport”). He was later sent to Sweden, where he was in the safekeeping of a friend. In February 1942, Ilse Weber, her husband Willi, and their youngest son, Tommy, were relocated to Theresienstadt. Here she worked as a nurse in the children’s hospital. During her stay in the ghetto, she wrote many poems in German, setting some to music. Two of those compositions have been preserved to this day.
In October 1944, her husband was deported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp. Wanting to reunite the family, Ilse and Tommy volunteered to join him. After arriving at the camp, they were sent directly to the gas chamber. Willi Weber survived the camp and died 30 years later. Hanuš Weber survived the war and continued living in Sweden. He died in September 2021. Ilse Weber’s work was forgotten for many years. Its value, however, was recognized by Bente Kahan, the curator of this exhibition, Unfinished Lives. With the full support of Hanuš Weber, she undertook to develop Ilse Weber’s story and poetry in her art.
