Arranged Marriage Saved Holocaust Survivor, Became True Love

When 17-year-old Mila Nishball needed to escape the Holocaust, her parents arranged a marriage with a stranger who had an American passport. She thought Richard Weiss was cute, and that instant attraction saved both their lives.

The couple's remarkable story now appears in a museum exhibit 4,000 miles away in the Czech Republic. "Those Who Returned and Those Who Did Not" honors eight Jewish families from the town of Mladá Boleslav, and Mila was her family's sole survivor.

Richard needed money to return to America. Mila's parents, Josef and Marie Gunsburg, desperately wanted their daughter to escape. The solution brought two young people together in 1939 who lived in separate bedrooms after the wedding.

Then something unexpected happened. "We love each other," the newlyweds announced. The arrangement had sparked real feelings.

Richard left for America in December 1939 to find work and secure a visa for his bride. Mila stayed behind with her parents, not knowing the horror that awaited her family.

In 1940, the Nazis confiscated the family's house and bank accounts. They were forced into a ghetto with no running water, electricity, or proper plumbing. Mila's grandfather was beaten to death in January 1941.

After a year in the ghetto, Mila's mother urged her to leave and join Richard. They promised to reunite after the war. That reunion never came.

Mila's grandmother spent three years in the ghetto before being deported to Auschwitz, where she was murdered in the gas chambers. Meanwhile, Mila and Richard built a new life in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

Why This Inspires

The arranged marriage that began as survival became a true partnership. Richard, once on track to become a doctor, worked as a cleaner. Mila became a seamstress. They were never wealthy, but they raised three children in a close, loving family.

Their daughter, Deborah Weiss, a professor emerita at Southern Connecticut State University, helped bring the Czech exhibit to her campus. The display included family photos she'd never seen before.

Mila spoke about the Holocaust whenever she could, feeling a responsibility to prevent history from repeating itself. She shared her story for 99 years before passing away five years ago.

The exhibit opened April 15 at SCSU's Buley Library, timed with Holocaust Remembrance Day. It stands in the very building where the ghetto once operated, now transformed into a museum honoring those who suffered there.

Deborah wishes her mother could have seen herself celebrated this way, but she knows Mila's voice continues through the exhibit. Love and hope proved stronger than hate, and that message lives on.