Stefan Weinberg, Founder of AMHAC Passes Away at 93

Former Edgemont resident Stefan Weinberg passed away at the age of 93 in Aventura Florida on January 11, 2015. Founder of AMHAC with his wife Anna, Weinberg was well-known in Westchester for his air conditioning and heating company, which is now run by his three sons, Saul, Bill and Ted.

Stefan Weinberg was born in Krakow, Poland in 1923. He enjoyed a normal childhood until the age of 16, when the Germans invaded Krakow and stripped the family of their home and belongings, confining them to the ghetto. They were not given food and struggled daily to find something to eat. According to an article about Weinberg in Westchester Magazine, initially there were 65,000 Jews in Krakow and only 2,000 survived the war. In 1943, after two years in the ghetto, Weinberg and his mother were moved to Plaszow concentration camp. Eight days after they arrived, his 47 year-old mother died of typhus and Weinberg buried her in a mass grave in the camp.

For the following two years, Weinberg dug mass graves, retrieved corpses and burned bodies –and then was moved to two more concentration camps Gross-Rose and ultimately Buchenwald where he worked in the camps stone quarry. He was fed so little that his 5'11" frame shrunk to just 76 pounds.

As the war came to a close, the prisoners were forced to march without food or water to railway stations, only to be stuffed into train cars and shipped off elsewhere. Weinberg recalled that about a third of prisoners were shot because they could not walk. Weinberg escaped, hiding out in empty barns and eating raw food until he was captured again by the German police. After denying being Jewish, they let him go. He was then picked up by American soldiers who gave him food and a place to sleep. From there, he made his way to Prague where he was reunited with Anna Unger, a young woman he met at the Plaszow camp. They were married until her death in 2012.

Stefan and his wife Anna made their way to the United States, settling in Lancaster, PA. Stefan took a job with Holland Furnace Company cleaning furnaces for a modest weekly wage. He applied himself and rose through the ranks of the company and was offered the Presidency of Holland Furnace, but turned it down and opened a new company.

The family moved to Edgemont and started AMHAC, one of the premiere HVAC companies in the New York/Metropolitan area. Today, their sons continue to run the business.

Weinberg lived with memories of the concentration camps until his own death on January 11, 2015. He was a founding member of the Holocaust and Human Right Education Center of Westchester and spoke throughout the County to audiences young and old about his experiences during the war, educating them to "never forget."

Weinberg's funeral was held at 9:30 am on January 15 at Westchester Reform Temple in Scarsdale. He is survived by He is survived by his threesons Saul, Bill and Ted; daughters-in-law Audrey and Franne. He was the devoted grandfather of Blake, Jordan, Taylor and Adam.

Donations may be made to The Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center, 4 West Red Oak Lane, White Plains, NY 10604.