Professor Shares Mother's Holocaust Survival Miracle at SCSU

A message on Instagram just uncovered a family miracle that began 80 years ago in Czechoslovakia and now lives at Southern Connecticut State University.

Dr. Deborah Weiss, who teaches Judaic studies at SCSU, never expected her own family's story to become the lesson. But when her niece contacted a tour guide in the Czech Republic through social media, everything changed.

The guide recognized the family name Gunsburgova from a museum exhibit in what was once a Jewish ghetto during World War II. The exhibit featured photographs and documents the family had never seen, including a high school photo of relatives who didn't survive.

Weiss' mother, Mila Gunsburgova, was just 17 when she escaped that ghetto through a business arrangement that saved her life. Every other member of her family perished in the Holocaust.

That escape brought Mila to Bridgeport, Connecticut, where she met Richard Weiss, a 21-year-old who secured her U.S. visa. The two married and built a life together that lasted 37 years and brought three children into the world.

"She always said that my dad was awfully cute, all the girls wanted to marry him, but he picked me," Weiss recalled. Her mother lived nearly a century as her family's sole survivor.

Why This Inspires

Mila passed away five years before the Czech museum discovery, never knowing her family's story would be honored this way. Now her daughter is ensuring that story reaches a new generation.

The exhibit features nine families torn apart by the Holocaust, each requiring at least one survivor to be included. Mila was that one survivor for the Gunsburgova family.

SCSU partnered with the Czech museum to translate the exhibit for American students. It opens this week following a special program led by Weiss on April 15.

What started as a curious Instagram message has become a bridge across eight decades, connecting a teenager's escape to freedom with college students learning why such stories must never be forgotten.