Weiss-Frohsinn Family Collection

Lily (also spelled Lili or Lilly) Weiss was born October 27, 1906, the daughter of Adolf and Ellen (née Wurmser) Weiss. She had four siblings: her twin brother Hans, elder brothers Paul and Fritz, and her elder sister Rita (also called Gretl). The family took many trips to various locations in Europe.

In 1934 Lily married Rudolf Werner; together they ran the Werner Gymnastics School in Vienna. By 1938 the couple had emigrated to the United States, where they settled in Bridgeport, Connecticut. By 1940 Lily had found employment as a masseuse in a beauty parlor. Rudolf Werner died in 1942. On August 22, 1945 Lily married Ernst Otto Frohsinn, originally of Essen, Germany; they had one daughter, Ellen.

Ernst Frohsinn was the son of Carl and Hedwig (née Seligmann) Frohsinn. He had been active in athletics since an early age, with training in gymnastics and track. In the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam he represented Germany in track. He also studied accounting. After having been arrested and sent to the concentration camp at Sachsenhausen, he was able to escape and eventually joined his sister in New Haven. He came to Bridgeport in 1940. In 1944 he began working as a masseur at the Bridgeport Jewish Community Center, and later joined an accounting firm.

Meanwhile, Lily's parents Adolf and Ellen Weiss had left Vienna for Baden bei Zürich, Switzerland, where they were joined by Lily's brother Fritz. Fritz was a professional photographer who took pictures of the Swiss Jewish refugee camps.

Ernst Frohsinn was a founding member of the Bridgeport Jewish Community Center's Honorable Menschen club and also on the executive board of the Greater Bridgeport Committee for the Senior Olympics. In 1990 he was inducted into the Greater Bridgeport Jewish Community Center Sports Hall of Fame. He died in 1990.

Lily Frohsinn died in 1994 in Colorado.