JUDITH VERONIKA WEISZMANN

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JUDITH VERONIKA WEISZMANN (née KOPSTEIN) Peacefully after a brief illness, with her family by her side, Judith Weiszmann P.Eng. FEC passed away on May 27, 2014 at Riverview Health Centre. She leaves her daughter Ann Weiszmann, son-in-law Daniel Brodsky, grandsons Gabriel and Adrian (Toronto), and her son Paul (Winnipeg) to honour her memory. She is also mourned by cousins Erica Leon (Los Angeles) and Zsuzsi Dobos (Hungary), niece Marianne Hidvégi (Hungary) and by many friends in Hawaii, and elsewhere in the U.S., Canada, Hungary and Sweden. Judith was predeceased by her father and mother and in 2011, by her beloved husband Erwin Weiszmann. Judith was born on January 30, 1930, in Budapest, Hungary. She was the only child of Andor and Katalin Kopstein. Andor was a Jewish timber merchant who imported and exported building materials to several European countries, Sweden among them. Judith's family were middle class Jews who lived in an upscale apartment in central Budapest. Judith had a very tranquil childhood right up until the start of the Second World War. She spoke English, German and her native Hungarian fluently. Judith was on the brink of adolescence when the full impact of the Second World War began to be felt by Hungarian Jews. Her family's life changed profoundly as the war carried on. Judith often spoke of how the war had robbed her of her childhood. Her sense of security vanished, not to be fully regained until long after she immigrated to Canada. Judith's family was very fortunate to have been among those families saved by Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish businessman-turned-diplomat. Wallenberg had been sent to Budapest by the World Jewish Congress, the American War Refugee Board and the King of Sweden to spearhead a heroic rescue mission to save as many of the remaining population of Hungarian Jews as could be rescued. Wallenberg arrived in Budapest on July 9, 1944 to become part of the Swedish Embassy's staff. He designed a document that resembled a Swedish passport, a so called Schutzpass. A Schutzpass identified the bearer as a person under the protection of the Swedish Crown. Judith's family were among the very first Jews to be issued these documents because her father had a close business contact in Sweden who knew of Wallenberg's mission and arranged for the family to be issued their Schutzpasses. Judith's life was spared on several occasions as a result of her having a Schutzpass. After the liberation of Budapest, Judith discovered that her beloved nine year old cousin, Marika, who was like a little sister to her, had been gassed in Auschwitz along with Marika's mother and grandmother. Further, Judith lost several cousins from Békéscsaba in rural Hungary to the Auschwitz gas chambers. These losses left her with wounds that endured to the end of her life. Judith and her father Andor were among the last people to see Wallenberg as a free man prior to his capture in Budapest by the Russian liberating forces. During the summer of 1948, Judith went to a camp for Jewish University students. It was at this summer camp that Judith met her future husband, Erwin. In 1953, during Hungary's darkest Stalinist days, Erwin and Judith defied the Communist regime and were secretly married by a Rabbi in a synagogue. This was the beginning of a 58 year marriage and business partnership. In her lighter moments, Judith would say of working with your husband that it counted for twice the time when measuring the longevity of a marriage! When Judith graduated from high school in 1948, it was just after the Communists had seized power in Hungary and university acceptance for a Jewish woman from an upper middle class background would have been a mere faint hope. So with a little creative editing of her application papers she gained admission and graduated with her Structural Engineering degree from the Technical University in 1954. Judith worked at the Industrial Design Institute in Budapest after graduation and later became the head of the Structural Engineering section of the Pest County Engineering Design Centre. During this time, Judith completed all of the compulsory courses for a Master's degree but was unable to complete her thesis because she and Erwin fled Hungary for Austria in 1956 following the failed Hungarian Revolution. They were both very ambitious and were able to secure jobs in Austria as civil engineers while waiting for their papers in order to immigrate to Canada. While life was good in the spectacular Tyrolean Alps, Judith and Erwin decided that the iron curtain was much too close for comfort. They wished to start a new life in a democratic, English speaking country. Canada accepted them and in August 1957, they arrived in Montreal with two backpacks and a grand total of $70 between them! They became Canadian citizens in 1963. While they began their life in Canada in Montreal, shortly after their arrival, Erwin received an offer from Winnipeg Hydro which occasioned their move to Winnipeg. Judith began working for Smith, Carter Katelnikoff Architects and for Crosier, Krauss and Partners, Consulting Engineers. While they both held day jobs, they moonlighted in the evenings and established Weiszmann and Associates Consulting Engineers in 1959. When Judith applied for registration with the Association of Professional Engineers of Manitoba (APEM) in January 1958, she was advised that the Technical University of Budapest was not on APEM's list of approved universities and she was flatly denied registration. To Judith, this seemed terribly unfair because her university was formerly named the Royal Hungarian Josef Nador Technical University of Budapest which was on the approved list. After seizing power, the Communists renamed the university for political reasons, while everything else at the University remained the same. Erwin's request for registration with APEM had been approved without any question as he had graduated prior to the name change. This was very frustrating for Judith, but like she always did, she just pressed on. So for the next several years, Judith concurrently worked full-time for Weiszmann and Associates while writing six qualifying exams, a thesis and raising a family. When she was registered as a Professional Engineer in April 1969, Judith was the first woman to be registered to practise engineering in Manitoba's 94 year history of professional self-regulation. Judith was always concerned about the protection of the public and committed herself to this goal by serving on the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Manitoba's (APEGM) "Safety in Engineering Practise" committee for two dozen years. In 1995, Judith received a Merit Award from APEGM for her pioneering work in the field of engineering. Judith was a life member of APEGM, having been active in membership for 45 years. She was also a "Fellow of Engineers Canada", a national recognition to honour individuals who have given noteworthy service to the engineering profession through their work and volunteerism. Judith pioneered a long service career as a woman in a male dominated profession, paving the professional path for other women in the engineering profession. Over the next 48 years, Judith and Erwin designed a large variety of structures and specialized engineering works, including schools, banks, community centres, airplane hangars, industrial and apartment buildings, churches and synagogues. With advancements in computing technology, Judith and Erwin were able to transition into retirement during the latter years of their working lives by "taking their office" with them to Hawaii over the winter months. Judith was a believer in educating future generations about the devastating effects of the Holocaust. She was in frequent demand as a speaker and gave very generously of her time, lecturing for decades about her experiences during the Holocaust to high school and university students. She hoped that by teaching future generations about the Holocaust, that hatred leading to such cataclysm could be avoided in future. In 2012, marking the 100th anniversary of Raoul Wallenberg's birth, the Swedish Postal Service issued a commemorative stamp. When developing the stamp, the designer contacted Wallenberg's half-sister Nina Lagergren about the design. Nina provided the designer with a copy of Judith's Schutzpass, which Judith had given her in gratitude 15 years earlier when Nina was in Toronto to attend the unveiling of a statue honouring her half-brother Raoul. At the time the stamp was created, no one in the Swedish Postal Service had any idea that Judith Kopstein had survived the war. In 2013, Canada Post also issued a Wallenberg stamp featuring Judith's Schutzpass in the same fashion as the Swedes had done. It was complete serendipity that Judith's daughter Ann bought a set of the Wallenberg commemorative stamps when they were publicly released in Canada, "throwing them into her purse and only looking at them the next day." When she told her mother that her Schutzpass had found its way onto the stamp, Judith was exceedingly honoured and humbled to find herself on both the Swedish and Canadian stamps with her hero, Mr. Wallenberg. This story circulated rapidly within the Jewish community across Canada and among organizations that deal with Holocaust education and race relations, and the demands for speaking engagements grew. Judith held human rights experts, academics, Holocaust educators and high school and university students equally spellbound in her descriptions of the events that occurred in and around the Nazi occupation of Budapest and following the arrival of Wallenberg. As a result of an invitation to speak at the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) conference in Toronto in October 2013, Judith received a further invitation from the Canadian government to speak at another IHRA meeting, in February 2014 in Sweden, as their guest of honour. This invitation gave Judith the opportunity to realize a lifelong dream, to travel to Wallenberg's homeland. The stories she told of her survival experiences resonated as deeply with the Swedish audience as they did with those in Canada. Judith felt an enormous debt of gratitude to Wallenberg and, when speaking about the Holocaust, she always underscored the good that one person can do in the world. She also had two other key messages: pay attention to the pockets of anti-Semitism springing up in some parts of Europe and North America, and that living in peace with your neighbours is much better than the alternative. Beyond her professional achievements as a structural engineer and as a Holocaust educator, Judith is remembered for her abiding love for her son and daughter and for her grandsons. She is remembered for her Old World elegance and her New World savoir-faire, and for her generosity, intelligence and warmth. She will be greatly missed by all who knew her. Funeral services were held at Shaarey Zedek on May 30, 2014 followed by interment at Shaarey Zedek Cemetery. The service was performed by cherished long-time family friend Rabbi Neal Rose. Shiva was observed at Judith's home. Pallbearers were: Gabriel Brodsky-Weiszmann, Daniel Brodsky, Neil Cutler, Yoni Coodin, Adi Koifman-Chagin and Zack Baron. Honorary Pallbearers were Dr. Nathan Wiseman, Paul Barsony, Burtie Bass, David Cohen, Dr. Gary Cohen, Henry Haak, Ted Ramsay and Marcel Ross. The family wishes to thank the doctors and staff at CancerCare Manitoba, Health Sciences Centre, St. Boniface Hospital and Riverview Health Centre for their kindness and compassion. Should friends desire, donations in Judith's memory can be made to the Jewish Child and Family Services of Winnipeg.

As published in Winnipeg Free Press on Jun 21, 2014