This is a portrait of my Grandmother Dr Dora Kleinhaus Weiss painted in 1930 by a well known German Jewish artist in Munich Germany where she lived. She was a 1926 summa cum laude graduate of the faculty of Medicine at Ludwig Maximillian University in Munich and was married to Walther S.  Weiss a prominent businessman. They had 3 children. The eldest, Hanne died in childhood. In August 1939 they sent their son Werner to England on the Kindertransport. In December 1941 she and her daughter Helen (Leni) left Munich by train to Barcelona with 42 crates of possessions. 
2 weeks later her husband took a Lufthansa flight and joined then. 
They spent some months in Lisbon and with the help of their closest friend Rabbi Leo Baerwald got visas to the USA. 
Arriving in NewYork, she had to pass the US medical licensing exam (first try!) and later worked as an Anesthesiologist at Beekman Downtown Hospital. She supported her family and made their home in America. 
Almost a year after their arrival, the 42 crated were delivered to New York. This portrait was in one. 
She died in NYC in 1951. 

– Walter I Weiss MD

Relationship:  Child of im/migrant Child of im/migrant