Teresa Wiesner's Obituary
Having come to the final page of her remarkable story, Teresa Wiesner passed away on July 31, 2026, in Sunny Isles Beach, Florida, a few months short of her 98th birthday. She was blessed to die peacefully in the comfort of her own home, which is exactly where she wanted to be. And she left this world sustained and embraced by the circle of those who loved her, a fitting and final gift for this woman of great valor who persevered through unimaginable hardships—and yet experienced miraculous joys—throughout her life.
Teresa was born October 9, 1928, in Topolcany, Slovakia, the youngest of the three daughters of Julius and Lotka Deutelbaum. From 1940 until the Allied liberation in 1945, she and her family experienced the horrors of antisemitism and the Holocaust, including deportation and internment in Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen. Only she and her eldest sister, Sida, survived this ordeal.
After the war and back in Slovakia, she met and married another survivor, Ondrej (Andres) Wiesner, and with him embarked on a life journey that would take them to Israel, where they lived for seven years, in her own words, “very young, very poor, but very happy”; to Managua, Nicaragua, where they joined a tiny but vibrant Jewish community and created a thriving and successful automotive business; and in the wake of the Sandinista Revolution, to Sunny Isles Beach, Florida, where they lived with their daughter, Yael, continuing an active business and social life. Throughout all these moves, she remained dedicated to and treasured her remaining family who remained in Europe in what was then known as Czechoslovakia.
Loss and tragedy revisited Teresa again when her sister, Sida, with whom she had survived the horrors of the war, passed away in Slovakia; when her only child, Yael, died in 2007; and just a few years after that, when her “little man”, as she called her husband Andres, also died. While she might have justifiably felt alone, Teresa realized that, in fact, she had a loving circle of family—family of blood and family of choice—who remained with her and would support her in the days and years ahead.
And so, with courage and strength, she continued to live a life filled with curiosity, humor, and love. In fact, until just recently, she spoke between six and eight languages—not always fluently, but well enough—and could confidently and happily discuss the political environment of multiple countries.
She loved watching videos on her phone, FaceTiming with her family in Slovakia and Czechia, singing old songs in Slovak or Hungarian, drinking a glass of good red wine, and relishing a plate of pasta puttanesca. Perhaps because while in the camps she was forced to wear what she referred to as “so-called clothes” and “Dutch wooden shoes”, she loved her sweaters from Nieman Marcus and her Ferragamos. She adored and doted on her dachshund, Lucy. And she entertained her caregivers, her friends, and her family with stories and memories that reached across an entire century of life. She had a remarkable sense of humor and an infectious laugh!
Teresa was a strong, insightful, and determined woman, who even at the end embodied the words of the American poet, Robert Penn Warren, who once wrote, “...the world’s way is yet long to go, and I love the world even in my anger, and love is a hard thing to outgrow”.
Teresa was preceded in death by her parents, Julius and Lotka Deutelbaum, and her sister, Nela Deutelbaum, each of whom perished in the Holocaust. She is also predeceased by her husband, Andres, her daughter, Yael, and her sister Sida Deutelbaum-Gross, with whom she survived deportation, Auschwitz, and Bergen-Belsen. She is also predeceased by her loving canine companion, Lucy.
She is survived by her nieces, Nela Muller (Tibor) and Dana Hanzlik (Palo); her grand-nieces and grand-nephews Igor Muller (Klara), Nadia Muller, Petra Majova (Andrej), and Martín Hanzlik (Katarina); and their children. Teresa is also survived by her “family of choice”, surrogate nieces Rebecca Biderman (David Fraher) and Michelle Garcia (Carlos Vargas), who have cared lovingly for her and managed all the details of her life, especially in the decade after Andres’ death; as well as by many loving nephews, nieces, cousins, and friends across the United States, Costa Rica, Central Europe, and Israel. And finally, her circle of support and care would have been woefully incomplete without the dedication and affection of her team of long-term caregivers, including Elva Aburto and Marie Cheila, and most especially Diomelys Calle and the irreplaceable Maria Lurdes López Oropeza. The family will be eternally grateful to each of them for all they have done on Teresa’s behalf.
Graveside services will be held at 11:30 AM on August 4th at Lakeside Memorial Park, 10301 NW 25th Street, Doral, Florida 33172. Shiva will be held at Teresa’s home on Tuesday evening, August 4.
The family requests donations in memory of Teresa Wiesner to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (https://www.ushmm.org) or to the Women’s International Zionist Organization-Miami Chapter (https://wizofl.org/).
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