NOVEMBER 2018
Artifact of the Month for November 2018
Calendar from 1942
Ernst Weinberg (1913 – 1991)
Ernst Weinberg was born in Fredrikstad as one of three children to Josef Weinberg (born 1885 in Rajgrod, Poland) and wife Elise (nee Jaffe, 1890 in Odessa). Ernst went to sea as First Mate in 1932. He served in the Navy in 1933 and 1939. In 1939 he married Margit (f. Frøistad). Their daughter Irene was born in 1941. On December 9th, 1942, the family fled to Sweden. Margit later wrote a record of the events surrounding the escape. Towards the end of the war Ernst left for London where he served in the Norwegian forces. After the liberation Ernst worked as a customs officer until he retired in 1980.
Ernst’s father Josef was arrested on the 22nd of September 1942 og and transferred to Grini prison camp. From here he was deported with the ship Monte Rosa the 20th of November. Josef Weinberg was killed in Auschwitz in February 1943.
The calendar from 1942 is a gift to the Oslo Jewish Museum from Ernst Weinberg’s daughter, Irene Frøystad Weinberg.
Photo: Calendar from 1942. On November 26th Ernst marked a red cross and wrote: “Women and children”. 529 Jews – out of these 228 women and children – was deported from Oslo that day onboard the transport ship Donau to Stettin, and from there to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Only nine men survived.
Photograph: Ernst Weinberg, ca. 1933.