Gedalia & Taube Herzberg

I would like to remember my Grandparents Gedalia & Taube, and my aunt Felicitas who all were murdered in Auschwitz. It’s a sadness that I have always had; thinking about what they went through and never knowing them.

My father, Gunther Jacob Herzberg, was the eldest of their four children. They lived in Breslau, at 31 Wallstr. They lived on the first floor of the four-story building which they owned. This was a Jewish area which had Jewish shops, schools, cafes etc. It is a street away from the canal, which is wide and deep, where my father used to ice skate in winter when it froze over. The canal has a promenade along each side, lined with trees.

They were orthodox. My grandfather Gedalia was a warden of the White Stork Synagogue, which, before the war was the third largest in Germany. They were regular members, and my dad sang in the choir. I have happy memories of my dad and my uncle singing Yiddish songs and psalms on our Seder and Friday nights. My father unfortunately didn’t talk much about his family, but he told us a story about how his father, Gedalia and him closed the wrought iron large gates in the synagogue courtyard on Kristallnacht 09/11/1938 so that the synagogue was not torched or looted unlike all the other synagogues in Breslau.  Another story my dad would tell us was how his father would often bring home strangers for a meal after synagogue services as he didn’t like them to be alone.

My father and his younger brother Moshe left Breslau in 1939 on different trains. My Dad came to live in London, his brother Moshe was sent to Leeds and their two cousins who had lived next door in Breslau, were sent to Glasgow & Manchester by Kindertransport. My father’s eldest sister Ruth, survived Auschwitz, escaping from the Death March but her companion was cruelly shot. Tragically the rest of the family, his aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, and grandparents didn’t survive.

In 1995 my Uncle Gunther took my sister Susanna, cousin Lilli and myself to Wroclaw (Breslau) It was an amazing trip as he could tell us stories about what they did and where they were allowed to go. We visited the art deco swimming pool where they swam and saw the amazing primary school which is still a Multi faith Jewish day school supported by the Launder foundation. We visited some of the rooms in our Grandparents' flat which was amazing, some of the wallpaper looked original, and we went to the Stork synagogue. We were all surprised at how beautiful it was. Although Dad had told us it was, we had thought 'how could it?' The old Town Hall square is enormous with old, coloured painted buildings around it with shops & restaurants.

May all those murdered in the Holocaust be remembered.