Weil Sofie (Sophie) – Gedenkbuch

Weil, Sofie (Sophie)

geb. Schnock

Geburtsdatum:: 22.03.1868
Geburtsort:: Mönchengladbach

Beruf:: Hausfrau

Wohnorte:: Bilker Straße 25, Grafenberger Allee 78

Todesdatum:: 19.08.1942
Todesort:: Ghetto Theresienstadt

Sophie Schnock kam am 22. März 1868 als Tochter des Metzgermeisters Selig Salomon Schnock und seiner Frau Eva, geborene Menken, in Mönchengladbach zur Welt. Sie hatte mit Julie (geboren 1859), Paula (geboren 1861), Lazarus (geboren 1863) und David (geboren 1865) vier ältere Geschwister. Es folgten die jüngeren Geschwister Emma (geboren 1871), Leopold (geboren 1873), Moritz (geboren 1874) und Johanna (geboren 1877).

Sophie Schnock heiratete August Weil. Ihr Mann stammte aus Oberlustadt in Rheinland-Pfalz, wo auch die Tochter Lilly am 17. Juli 1904 zur Welt kam. Das Ehepaar hatte noch ein zweites Kind, über das jedoch keine weiteren Informationen vorliegen. Die Ehe zwischen Sophie und August Weil scheiterte und wurde geschieden. August Weil verstarb 1920 in Oberlustadt.

Die geschiedene Sophie Weil lebte bis 1937 in Mönchengladbach und zog anschließend nach Düsseldorf. Hier wohnte sie zunächst auf der Gartenstraße 19. Am 21. Dezember 1937 zog sie in die Bilker Straße 25, wo sie für mehrere Jahre wohnte. Am 27. März 1942 folgte ein weiterer Umzug, nun in das jüdische Altenheim auf der Grafenberger Allee 78. Am 21. Juli 1942 wurde Sophie Weil von Düsseldorf aus in das Ghetto Theresienstadt deportiert. Hier verstarb sie am 19. September 1942 im Alter von 74 Jahren.

Sophies Schwester Johanna Tondorf, geborene Schnock, war nur wenige Monate zuvor, am 22. April 1942, von Düsseldorf aus in das Ghetto Izbica deportiert worden. Auch sie hat nicht überlebt. Sophie Weils Tochter Lilly Weil konnte zusammen mit ihrem Ehemann Richard Schwarz Deutschland rechtzeitig verlassen. Zunächst lebte sie in Großbritannien, später dann in den USA, wo sie 1987 in Chicago verstarb.

Autorin: Frederike Krenz, Förderkreis der Mahn- und Gedenkstätte Düsseldorf e.V.

Quellenangaben

Sophie Weil, 1937 (Geni)

Dokument aus dem Ghetto Theresienstadt über Sophie Weil (Arolsen Archives, DocID5128256)

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Introduction

Presented by the City of Düsseldorf, this digital memorial book commemorates the Jews who were murdered during the Nazi. The City’s Memorial and Education Centre has been researching victims’ life stories since its foundation in 1987, collecting biographical data, documents, letters and photographs. Using databases whose origins can be traced back to the 1990s, together with the collated information to be found in the archival collection, almost 3,000 individuals have been identified who were persecuted and murdered because they were Jews, or “non-Aryan” Christians.

Biographical research into the above necessitated searches – of both national and international archives – for a variety of documents such as register office certificates, registration indexes, address books and exit papers. Perpetrator resources, too, were searched, for example Gestapo files, files relating to communal matters, and tax and administrative district files. Numerous interviews with survivors and members of victims‘ families provided insights into family life, routine and otherwise, as well as of the personality of the deceased.

The cohort of those who were murdered is heterogeneous. Old and young, men and women, the young and the elderly, people from modest backgrounds or those who had built a secure living for themselves; people who, after 1933, had fled to the European continent but who were then “reeled in” by the German occupation; people whose death or murder came about in a variety of circumstances. Some died of starvation, disease or forced labour in the ghettos and concentration camps to which they had been deported, others were murdered in extermination camps. And there were also those who, out of despair, committed suicide or were murdered before the outbreak of war whilst still at home, for example during the 1938 November Pogrom and in other violent events.

The relationship to Judaism of many of those who died was very individual. The breadth and depth of the spectrum was such that they ranged from the deeply pious and orthodox to those of a more liberal or conservative persuasion and, at the other end of the scale, to atheists. All were persecuted as “Jews” by reason of their ancestry, whether they were baptised Christians, having previously been Jews, or had become Jews only in the course of Nazi “investigations”, despite never having had a Jewish identity. Nazi ideology decreed that the decisive factor was not individual identity but “ancestry”, “blood relationship” and “racial hygiene”. Despite all their differences, what all these people had in common was that they came from Düsseldorf, had been born there or had lived there for many years.

Scientific research can access genealogical connections by availing itself of the online compilation of names, dates and biographies; but in addition, by creating connections with their own personal research, survivors and their descendants the world over can also search for their murdered families.

The work on an online memorial book is never done. The intention is to add more dates and names. Of course the Düsseldorf Memorial and Education Centre is grateful for any leads, additions and corrections which contribute to the overall picture.

Düsseldorf, May 2022

Hildegard Jakobs
Academic Project Leader
and Deputy Director

Dr. Bastian Fleermann
Director