BIOGRAPHY

Ruth Weyl was born in Wrocław (then Breslau), Lower Silesia, Poland (then German Empire), on 6 November 1908, to parents Heinrich Markt (1870–1942) and Else Bogen (1877–1942). Both of her parents lost their lives in 1942 at the Theresienstadt Ghetto in Terezín.

In 1930, she married Heinrich (later Henry) Weyl, a fellow native of Breslau. Heinrich owned a men’s wear manufacturing company that had been founded by his father. However, on 26 June 1937, the Nazis forced the business to close, prompting Ruth and Heinrich to leave Germany. They immigrated to Kenya, which was then under British rule.

Before reaching Kenya, they stopped in London to visit relatives, then traveled by ship from Southampton to Mombasa, and from there to Nairobi. Upon their arrival, a Jewish dentist who had heard about them helped Heinrich secure a job at a second-hand men’s clothing store. After being hospitalized for a ruptured appendix, Heinrich was unable to continue in that role. With assistance from an English couple, Ruth and Heinrich acquired a large house in Nairobi, which they converted into a boarding house. They ran this successful business for three years. However, at the outbreak of World War II, the British authorities arrested all male German nationals in Kenya—including Jews—and placed them in an internment camp near Nairobi. The internees were treated relatively well, and their wives were allowed weekly visits, but Ruth and Heinrich were forced to auction off their boarding house.

After several months, British officials offered the internees the chance to leave the camp if they agreed to manage farms. Heinrich attempted farm management but was unsuccessful. He later found work with a mining company in southern Kenya. On their way to the mine, the Weyls stopped at a hotel near Lake Kisumu and decided to stay and work there instead. For five years, from 1 February 1941, to 31 January 1946, the Weyls worked at the hotel. Ruth served as a housekeeper, while Heinrich managed the kitchen. In 1947, Heinrich became the catering manager at Nairobi Eastleigh Airport.

In 1948, Ruth and Heinrich decided to immigrate to the United States, where they had many relatives. They traveled to England by air, then sailed to New York aboard the Queen Elizabeth I, arriving in March 1948. The couple lived in Astoria for 30 years until he died in 1977. A short time later, she moved to Forest Hills, New York.

Ruth Weyl passed away in Forest Hills, New York, USA, on 23 February 2019, at the age of 110 years, 109 days.

RECOGNITION

Her age was verified by Andrew Holmes, and validated by the European Supercentenarian Organisation (ESO) on 9 June 2021.

ATTRIBUTION

* Ruth Weyl (Markt) – Geni

* Ruth Weyl (1908 – ) – Jewish Virtual Library

* Portrait of German Jewish refugee Ruth Weyl in Kenya. – United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

* “Making new friends: Bloomberg fetes 110-year-old woman with flowers” – Daily News, 14 November 2018

GALLERY