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Young George Weiss stood before the Russian guards and came under scrutiny. Was he Hungarian, as he claimed, or merely wearing the uniform of the Hungarian Army, in order to escape the fate of a German soldier? Could he speak Hungarian? Show us, they said. Give us the Lord's prayer.
And Weiss did:
Mi atyánk, aki a mennyekben vagy, Szenteltessék meg a te neved ...
The Lord's Prayer delivered him from a Russian prison camp during World War II, and it led to Weiss wearing the military uniforms of three nations. First came the German uniform, then the Hungarian in a ruse to avoid being sent to labor in coal mines, and later, a U.S. Army uniform after coming to America.
It was the American uniform that he was happiest to wear.
"He was so proud to be an American," his daughter, Susan Eick, said of her father, who built a masonry business and became a founding member of German Fest, including 12 years as president.
Weiss died Friday of natural causes at his Brookfield home. He was 87.
George and his late wife, Anna, grew up in neighboring villages in Hungary. They were bothDonauschwaben — people whose Germanic ancestors came to Hungary, Romania or Yugoslavia in the 1700s. They built lives in these countries but maintained their German language and culture.
Weiss' father was born in Hungary of German descent. His mother, also of German descent, was born in Milwaukee but had returned to her native Hungary as a child.
Weiss grew up in the village of Felsonana, where he worked in his youth as a musician (tuba, bass fiddle), a farm laborer and a mail carrier. His father was the village postman. Weiss was working as an apprentice bricklayer when the Germans came in during World War II and he, like the other young Donauschwaben men, was drafted. He was 17.
