Otto and Else Weidt

Otto Weidt’s efforts to establish his decorating business in Berlin failed. In 1936 he married his third wife, Else Nast, born 1902. Her father was a paver by occupation; her mother worked in factories. Her father became unemployed, bringing the family to the brink of destitution. The oldest of four children, Else Nast had to support her parents from a young age by working in a clothing store.

After going almost entirely blind, Otto Weidt became a brush maker and in 1939 opened Otto Weidt’s Workshop for the Blind in Berlin- Kreuzberg, along with his business partner Gustav Kremmert. The premises barely offered enough space, so the workshop moved to much larger premises at Rosenthaler Straße 39 in 1940.

Otto Weidt was a determined opponent of National Socialism. He employed mainly Jewish workers. He did everything he could to make their lives easier under the National Socialist regime, providing them with food and supporting them with advice. When he was no longer able to prevent their deportation through deception and bribery, he arranged hiding places for some of them. A number of people managed to survive thanks to his help. Otto Weidt’s wife Else also obtained food for people in hiding.

After the war, Else and Otto Weidt supported the founding of a Jewish children’s and old people’s home in Berlin-Niederschönhausen. Otto Weidt died in December 1947 at the age of 64. Else Weidt continued to run the workshop for the blind until it was closed down in 1952. She died on June 8, 1974, at the age of 71.

RECOGNITION AND HONORS FOR OTTO AND ELSE WEIDT

In 1946 Else and Otto Weidt were officially recognized as victims of fascism. In 1958 Else Weidt was honored as part of the West Berlin interior senator Joachim Lipschitz’s Unsung Heroes initiative, and received a monthly pension of 50 deutschmarks as a person in social need. Otto Weidt was honored post-
humously as Righteous Among the Nations by the Israeli Holocaust memorial center Yad Vashem in 1971. Thanks to the efforts of the journalist and survivor Inge Deutschkron, a square near Berlin’s central station was named after Otto Weidt in 2018.