Click on the picture to see a closeup.
My Grandfather's Story
Where This
Story
Took Place
(Use your browser's
Back button
to return to this page.)
WWII Topics
from This Story
NOW IT'S YOUR TURN
One of my grandfather's favorite memories was that my great, great, great uncle was Max Westheimer (of Westheimer Street in Houston, Texas). Max Westheimer was concerned about persecution and mistreatment of the Jews before the war. But he wasn't concerned about this happening in Russia or somewhere far away... he was concerned about it happening in America. He was afraid the Jews would be kicked out of American schools, children fighting children, persecution, and other mistreatments to Jews. He wrote many letters to Allen C. Bartlett the editor of the Houston Press on that topic. He collected these articles and letters in a scrapbook that he kept until his death. Max Westheimer died before the war began in 1938.
Once the war began, my family helped support war efforts on the homefront. The photograph at the top of this page was taken during World War II around the time Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. The man in the white suit, Rudolf Leon (my great grandfather), was the air warden for the neighborhood during the war. An air warden's job was to lead people to a safe place in the event of an air raid. He also owned his own metal shop so it was chosen as a drop off point for the scrap metal that was to be used to build more weaponry for the war. My grandfather (see if you can pick him out in the picture above...hint, look at the navigation bar) and great uncle were only boys at the time, but helped collect scrap metal for the war efforts. As a result, they won the city-wide contest and got their picture taken atop the great scrap pile along with an article in the local paper. The greatest prize for the kids was..."all the ice cream they could eat!"
Listen (802K) to my grandpa's story about this contest.