| Notes |
- RESEARCH_NOTES:
1. Partial excerpt per formal report of the Latvian Archives prepared 28 Feb 2011 for Kerry Petersen; report includes photo copy of the original of the attached with the following interpretation by the researcher:
"The lists of merchant of Goldingen for 1868:
2nd guild merchants.
- Joseph, son of Lemchen Herzenberg, aged 59,
- his wife Zippe, aged 60,
- 1st son Laser, son of Joseph, aged 39,
- his wife Amalie, aged 34,
- son Leonhard, aged 16,
- son Isack, aged 12,
- son Eduard, aged 9,
- son Moritz, aged 6,
- dau. Johanna, aged 14,
- dau. Rebecka, aged 12,
- dau. Rosa, aged 5,
- dau. Sahra, aged 3,
- dau. Dohra, aged 1-1/2
- 2nd son Jacob, aged 37,
- his wife Dorothea, aged 23, [KP. Lists wife and 6 children - see his notes.]
- 3rd son Elias Eduard, aged 30 (?), [KP. Lists wife and 3 children - see his notes.]
- daughter of Joseph - Hanna, aged 25, married to Abraham Herzenberg from Pilten. [KP. Summary report indicates the name Hanna is an obvious error for Theresa as shown on other documents.]"
2. 28 Jul 2007 Http://www.herzenberg.net/leo/htmlrh/Content.html copyrighted by Leo Herzenberg:
"An meinen Sohn (To my son) Leonhard Herzenberg von (from) Robert Herzenberg. Memoirs written during the 1940's." Translated during the 1990's by Leonardo (Leonhard) Herzenberg. The entire memoir is quite lengthy and included in its entirety in my notes with Joseph Herzenberg, the original known ancestor, in this database. The following is only the portion dealing with this part of the family:
"Great Uncles on Mother's Side...
GREAT-UNCLE LAZER I had met [64] in Goldingen, also his wife Amalie Hirschman. They had a beautiful house in Goldingen with a huge orchard, and it was said of the aunt that she made the workers sing songs during the harvest so they would not snack on the fruit. That counted in those days as the peak of avarice. In those days, in the country, one "stos" (about a liter) of berries, whether blueberries, strawberries, or Johannberries sold for a kopeck, around a penny, and other fruit was similarly cheap. Their children were Leonhard, Isidor, Edward, Moritz, Robert, Johanna, Bertha, Rosa, Sara, and Dorothea. I knew only Moritz, who carried on the father's business in Goldingen. He was married to Rosa Steinberg and had a single daughter Lina. I also met one of the daughters, I no longer know which one; She was very pretty [65] and well educated, but even more conceited [sehr gebildet, aber noch mehr eingebildet], and when I was in her home still as a student she behaved very haughtily. That happened because the families of the great-uncle were mostly very wealthy, and looked down on the generation of my parents who already found the fight for existence much more difficult, as if they were poor relations."
3. In Kuldiga (formerly known as Goldingen, my mother and I stayed the the "Roberts Herzenberg" apartment on the main pedestrian thoroughfare the night of Oct. 8, 2016. I believe this apartment to have belonged to Robert Herzenberg, son of Eleazer and Amalie (Hirschman) Herzenberg, who would have been about 47 when he built it circa 1915. The proprietor of the apartment rental is trying to contact the elderly descendant of Robert who sitll is alive and lives in Israel. Hopefully, I will be able to contact her for more information. Here is some communication from Mr. Vaitkus who we met and owns the apartment rental business. He is very interested in helping find out more about the history of the original Robert Herzenberg:
Email from roberts vaitkus 8 Oct 2016:
"Thank you for the time and the privilege to meet with you both. Thank you also for the amazing amount of the work and energy you have put to create the historical database of Herzenberg family tree line. I contacted my wife Aiga yesterday night telling what awesome people I have met. She and her sister will summarize all the detailed information about Robert Herzenberg we have at the moment and send it to you as soon they come back from UK. Please say hi to your Mom and I thank both of you for being willing to discover your legacy in such a adventurous way. I pray that God would open doors to people and places which will let you dig deeper than 5th generations back! Have a wonderful trip to Vilnius! With much love, Roberts Vaitkus +371 27710100.
The following are my comments and observations:
Photos of the apartment are are available on the Airbnb website https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/6864313 accessed 13 Oct 2016. It was built by Robert Herzenberg in about 1915 and included three floors. The bottom floor contained commercial space including a pharmacy and restaurant. A restaurant remains to this day. The building is owned by a Herzenberg descendant who is an elderly lady now living in Israel. The city also owns half the building as well probably due to past Communist confiscation prior to Latvia's Independence around 1990. The current proprietor leases the apartment and has renovated the main apartment on the top floor into a very highly-rated bed and breakfast. It is the apartment that Robert himself lived in and features a round room in a turret. Among original furnishings is cooking brick cooktop for cooking by charcoal or wood. The building was quite elegant in its days but the Communists put into it the poorest of poor family who were very rough on the building. It is being slowly restored. The apartment commands the best view on the best corner of the best street in Kuldiga which is called Liepajas Iela. This area is a favorite tourist destination for tour buses since it is the best preserved old village/town in all of Latvia. It was spared from the destruction of both World Wars and the ugly Sovietization that is so common in the Baltic Republics. The entire street was more or less built by the Jewish inhabitants and even the synagogue remains to this day. It is only a half hour drive from Piltene where all Jews first lived in Latvia before spreading throughout the country. Latvia in those days was under the domination of Sweden who persecuted the Jews. Piltene was owned by the Danes who were tolerant to the Jews. This area was the ancient center of the Duchy of Courland of the Livonian Order of the Teutonic Knights. In 1795 the Russian Tsar conquered Latvia and it remained Russian until modern days.
In another email from Roberts dated 19 Oct 2016, he provides the following information. He also provides some historical photos of the building, which I have since posted on Family Search in Robert Herzenberg's file. He notes [Kerry's comments in brackets]:
"I forwarded your e-mail to my wife and her sister [who do some historical research], so we have collected the information about Robert Hercenberg, which is not that much as I expected. Hope you can get something useful out of it.
Robert Herzberg - born in 1867, 09.11. in Kuldiga
Sofia Herzberg - born in 1875, 07.07. in Kuldiga
Georg Herzberg - born in 1901, 26.02. in Kuldiga
Leo / Leopold Herzberg - born in 1908, 02.09. in Kuldiga
The whole family before World War II lived in Kuldīga.
Herzberg Robert (Age of 74) and Sofia Herzberg (Age of 68) in the year of 1941 were sent out to the farm/field work on Kuldiga parishes.
Jacob Herzberg (buried on 9 March 1912). He has been an honorary citizen of Kuldiga. For many years he was a teacher of Jewish school, Jewish religious teacher, religious teacher of grammar school. Founded the Talmud - Torah school, which he led until 1911. [KP: Appears to be a separate Herzenberg from the family above -- not sure where he fits in.]
"[Photos of Robert Herzberg building:] Apartment house with shops Liepaja Street 8 is one of the most architecturally impressive buildings in the old town of Kuldiga. Owner Robert Herzberg built it in 1913 (the year number can be seen in the entrance door transom openwork metal grid) in place o fan old wooden house. Buildings spatial form and the artistic image corresponds to the later stages of Art Nouveau. The first floor occupied by shops. In turn, wing against the Katolu (now Raina) street in the interwar period was Birger E. pharmacy. Eduard Birger (born in 1864. Nurmuiza pastor's family) in 1913 bought Kozaka pharmacy on Baznicas and Policijas street corner in Kuldiga. Since it was located very close to Grabes pharmacy (Baznicas St. 20), in the same year he moved it to Herzberg house on the corner of Liepajas and Katolu street. Pharmacy was closed on 18th of November 1939, due the pharmacy owner repatriation. In late 20th century in the building' ground floor was opened the cafe "Staburadze". Also, now the building houses a café with the same name, as well as apartments."
In another email from Roberts dated 12 Nov 2016:
"About Israeli woman Hana May [descendant of Robert Herzenberg] ... I got her daughter's e-mail: maynoemi@yahoo.de, her full name is Noemi May and we have been communicating via her e-mail. So please feel free to connect with her." [I sent an email but no response yet.]
Update: Per email dated 28 Aug 2017 from Neomi May , whose mother has a part interest in the Robert Herzenberg building in Kuldigas:
"Unfortunately I can't add to the information about the Herzenberg family ... I only know that between May and Herzenberg families there existed a close friendship, especially between the young peaple.You should ask the Museum of the History of Kuldiga, maybe they can give you some more information. The only person, who would know about the relationship, was my father Leo May, but he died 2009, also unfortunately I have no one I could ask. My father told only that between May and Herzenberg families was a close friendship, but nothing about any relationship. It would be very interesting for me to learn more about Jewish families in Kuldiga ... If you would contact us 10 or 15 years ago, my father would have told you much more ... He loved his birth town very much and went every year to Kuldiga, there were a lot of memories. My Mother and I go every year for 5 or 6 weeks to Latvia. My mother is born in Riga.She survived as a refugee, but her parents were both killed in the Holocaust.My father told her a lot about his childhood in Kuldiga, showed her houses of friends and relatives too. We are actually in Kuldiga and my mother showed me the place where was the house of the Herzenberg family before. Unfortunately the house doesn't exist any more, only the place in the Jelgavas street. I am very sorry, that I am not able give you more information."
4. See the above note about the Robert Herzenberg apartment in modern Kuldigas. Concerning the Robert of the Robert Herzenberg apartment in modern Kuldigas. I had previously had some reservations whether or not I had linked them them correctly to the known line of Herzenbergs with him being the son of Eleazer Herzenberg and Amalia Hirschman. There was the possibility that Robert could also be the son of Jacob and Dorothea (___) Herzenberg; however, the Yad Vashem Holocaust website seems to prove the connection. The "Pages of Testimony" were submitted in the mid-1950s by a "relative" named Lea Zindel Shemin. I am not sure of what the relation may be, if any. They were part of a total of 13 Pages submitted by this same person. On Robert's Page, he is mentioned as the son of Ema, which would be Amalie Hirschman who married Eleazer Herzenberg, the brother to my great-grandfather Edouard Herzenberg. In the 13 Pages of Testimony, Lea also submitted pages for Adolf and Tekla Mai, born 1885 and 1890 respectively; also included was a daughter of this couple, Anna Mai, b. 1916. The May family is part owner of the current Robert Herzenberg building in Kuldiga. With this connection to the May family, that would tie them to the Robert and Sofia Herzenberg I had in my database.
The website of all 13 Pages of Testimony of Lea Zindel Shemin is at:
https://yvng.yadvashem.org/index.html?language=en&advancedSearch=true&sln_value=Zindel_Shemin&sln_type=synonyms&sfn_value=Lea&sfn_type=synonyms
Each page gives more details on each individual. There are two additional Herzbergs in the 13 Pages:
-Leopold, b. 1908 in Kuldiga. We had previously known of him as a son of Robert and Sofia/Zofia, but not what happened to him. He died in the Holocaust.
-Sara, age [about] 70, wife of Yitzkhak (Isaac) Herzberg, born Jacobstadt, Jekabpils, Zemgale, Latvia. Jekabpils is in the southeast of Latvia whereas Kuldigas was in the northwest. She would be the same generation as Robert and Sofia. Apparently there is a family connection, which would appear to be that Isaac, her husband, was the brother of Robert. I currently have Isaac, b. abt 1856 in Kuldigas, in the database but with an unknown wife. This would then add another person to our database. Apparently Isaac may have died before the Nazi occupation making Sara most likely a widow at the time of the Holocaust.
BIRTH:
1. NFS accessed 2 Dec 2011 gives a birth date of 16 Sep 1868 in Kuldiga; it apparently was submitted around 1988 by patron of the Family Search. No source is given. I believe he is most likely the same man as above who owned the Kuldiga building, who has a slightly different birth date of 9 Nov 1867. If for some reason it later proves that they are different men, then the next best candidate is the Robert of about the same age, son of Jacob and Dorothea Herzenberg. Jacob was the brother of Edouard Herzenberg (see Leopold Herzenberg's notes in Jacob's file).
DEATH:
1. Holocaust Yad Vashem website: https://yvng.yadvashem.org/nameDetails.html?language=en&itemId=567350&ind=6 accessed 8 Aug 2017:
"Robert Herzberg was born in Goldingen, Latvia to Ema. He was age 60. He was a merchant. Prior to WWII he lived in Goldingen, Latvia. During the war he was in Goldingen, Latvia. Robert was murdered in the Shoah. This information is based on a Page of Testimony (displayed here) submitted by his relative, Lea Zindel Shemin."
Note: I had an Israeli translate the relationship of Lea in the 1950s. He responds: "I looked at most of the POTs and it seems like this Lea is, or was, a relative. The word for relative (karov) is underlined in most of them at the end."
|
Chris & Julie Petersen's Genealogy
1868 - Abt 1941 (72 years)
