Chris & Julie Petersen's Genealogy

George Herzenberg

Male 1896 - 1942  (45 years)


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  • Name George Herzenberg 
    Born 19 Nov 1896  Liepaja (Libau), Courland, Latvia Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Gender Male 
    Died 8 May 1942  Vjatlag Camp, Kirov, Russia Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Person ID I4134  Petersen-de Lanskoy
    Last Modified 27 May 2021 

    Father Leonhard Herzenberg,   b. 12 Jul 1856, near Kuldiga (Goldingen), Courland, Latvia Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 15 Jul 1932, Liepaja (Libau), Courland, Latvia Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 76 years) 
    Mother Sara-Haye Halpert,   b. of Konigsberg (now Kaliningrad), Russia Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 23 Nov 1923, Liepaja (Libau), Courland, Latvia Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Married 12 Jul 1893  of Konigsberg (now Kaliningrad), Russia Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Family ID F1932  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family Line or Linzit Nikolaja Grasde,   b. 1904, Liepaja (Libau), Courland, Latvia Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. Aft 1955, , , Russia Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age > 52 years) 
    Married May 1933  Liepaja (Libau), Courland, Latvia Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Children 
     1. Leonhard Herzenberg,   b. 21 Jun 1934, Liepaja (Libau), Courland, Latvia Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. Aft 1990, Moskva, Russia Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age > 57 years)
    Last Modified 28 May 2021 
    Family ID F1976  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  • Notes 
    • RESEARCH_NOTES:
      1. Website of Peter Bruce Herzenberg of London, England (since relocated to South Africa). Website is no longer functioning as of 7 Aug 2007. Copies of much of his data from the website in my possession. He indicates references by codes, which pertain to the original source and file held in his database, which I have not seen. I have no key to the sources except HL is Leonardo Herzenberg, HG is Gail Herzenberg, PC is probably Piltene Cemetery records, LA is probably Latvian Archives, FA is probably Aleksandrs Feigmanis (Latvian researcher hired by Harold Hodes), and YL is Len Yodaiken (Israeli researcher hired by Harold Hodes); however, he lists the main researchers and their contributions in a lengthy report which I include in full in the notes of the earliest Herzenberg of this database. In regards to this individual:
      AF005 shows b. 1896 in Leipaja and d. 8 May 1942 in Vjatlag. Md. Grasde.
      LA019 shows same dates.
      HR shows b. 1896.
      HL.
      HL081: Arrested (with wife and son) June 14, 1941. Exiled in Vjatlags and died there in 1942.

      2. Research report dated 6 Jul 1997 from Latvian researcher Aleksandrs Feigmanis, Crestes 2-12, LV-1021, Riga, Latvia, to Harold Hodes of London, England (partial copy of eight pages in my possession). In one section he notes: "The following Herzenbergs I found in recently published list of inhabitants of Liepaja exiled in concentration camps or to exile by Soviets 14 Jun 1941;
      -Hercenbergs George son of Leonhard; born 1896, lived on Gimnaijas street 4, exiled in Vjatlag and died there 8-5-1942.
      -Hercenberg Line daughter of Nikolai, b. 1904; exiled in Kazatchinsky region of Krasnojarsk district with son Leonhard born 1934; son was liberated in 1950, mother in 1955."
      This is for husband, wife, and their son.

      BIOGRAPHY:
      1. 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:
      "MY PARENTS
      "FANNY GERSON, Leonhard Herzenberg, SARA HALPERT
      ...When my mother died I was one and a half years old; I have no memory of her. When I was a child one did not speak of her; when I was older and got a second mother it had been agreed that one especially did not speak of my mother. So I know almost nothing of my mother. According to stories and the few photos, she was of short stature, blond, and very beautiful [116]. She was also very clever [klug] and calm in her bearing. I have several letters of hers, that through some kind of shyness I have been unable to read, and a few handicrafts, among them my father's prayer shawl [tales] bag.
      There was great sorrow in the family over the deaths of my mother and aunt Sophie. Aunt Fanny, who later married Nathan Lowenstein, came into the house to care for me and run my widowed father's household. She knew nothing of child rearing or housekeeping, she was herself only a big child. In contrast to that, she vas very pretty, and let the students of the upper grades in our neighborhood court her much and often. Apparently the situation was not good either for me or my father. So it was natural that he would have to marry again. My father went on most of our holiday trips to the relatives, of which I wrote already, [msp 117] to find himself a wife and me a mother. It did not seem to work, because it lasted very long. Perhaps the candidates shied away from taking such a wild spoiled brat as me under their care. Finally my father made a match outside the country. He went to Konigsberg in private [i.Pr.] (without taking me along), got engaged to Sara Halpert, the daughter of Hirsch Halpert, Rabbi [Gabbe] in the polish schul (Synagogue), and the wedding took place on my father's birthday in 1893. I was already almost eight when the new mother, whom I always called Mamachen, came into the house in Libau. The marriage was happy, though not smooth. The percentage of happy unions was not smaller, perhaps larger, among the arranged ones than among the accidental ones (so-called love matches). When I met her at the railway station, Mamachen was a very pretty [bildhubshe], gentle [sanfte] woman, somewhat buxom [vollschlank] wearing a camel colored plush jacket, into which I liked to cuddle. [118] She was usually serious, an outstanding housewife [hausfrau], and cooked and baked wonderfully; your mother is the only one I've met so far who can do it still better in every respect. Mamachen was no longer young, did not make herself younger, but would give her age as ten years younger.
      Unfortunately neither she nor anyone else thought of it that smallpox immunization disappears at around age 30. She was vaccinated as a child, and in Germany smallpox was a rare, almost unknown, illness. But in Russia, and in God's little land of Kurland, it was all too common. Perhaps she got infected in an employment agency for servants, and became seriously ill with smallpox. She lay in the city [stadtlichen] hospital, and I would visit her with my father. She was in mortal danger for a long time; when she came out of it the once beautiful, smooth, white, face was a single red scar. [msp 119] She remained pockmarked the rest of her life. (In Russia pockmarked is called ..... (rjaboi); it is such a common sight that a special [urtumlich] word was coined [gepragt] for it. The bodily manifestation of her disease disturbed Mamachen's spirit for the rest of her life. [gab Mamachen ein knacks]. Papachen could surround her with the greatest love, concern, and attention, but she would convince herself that he did not love her, that he cared more for other women; I am sure she was mistaken, but she suffered in spite of it, and Papachen suffered along with her. But they lived quietly and withdrawn. In 1895 uncle Erich was born, at the end of 1896 uncle George. We three grew up, Erich and I left the parental home and moved away [fremde], George stayed home, he was Mamachen's darling. Mamachen fulfilled her step-motherly duty in an exemplary way; before going to Libau she had to swear to her father that she would not touch the orphan [waise], and she never did. [120] I never got a slap from her, though I must have driven her to desperation with my mischief, stubbornness, and back-talk. In later years we understood each other very well, and I would get her annoyed only in jest, for example when I would say I was going to marry a Christian she became speechless just as in my Childhood when I did not want to be subdued.
      For a time she became very fat, she went to Marienbad several times, she visited me in Freiberg, in Kiel and in Hamburg. She complained [krankelte] about various things. In 1922 she was in Kissingen with Papachen. The diagnoses of the physicians did not sound good, and at the end of 1922 she suffered a stroke which robbed her of speech and movement. So she suffered until the 15 Kislev (November 1923). When she died I was in Hamburg, I went to Libau for the funeral, but arrived too late. Uncle Erich was not allowed to return to [121] Latvia at that time, so uncle George and I were there alone to console Papachen. During Mamachen's illness an electric heating pad set the covers on fire. Since she could not call or move, she would have been seriously burned had not cousin Fanny (now in Prescott, AZ) happened to come in the room and torn the burning cover away. During her illness a very strange thing became evident. Some time before she had set a room aside and locked it with keys from which she would not be separated. Then she declared that the business staff were dishonest, that when Papachen and George went to lunch she herself sat in the cashiers place. She used this daily period to cut off pieces of cloth and hoard them in her locked room. Papachen found this collected hoard when he acquired the key during Mamachen's illness. This hoarding did not make sense, because the cut pieces were not useful for either [122] a suit or a dress. Perhaps this all happened in a state of craziness that later culminated in the stroke. To accomplish it she won the complicity of one of the clerks, who took the opportunity to cut coupons of cloth for himself, but with more sense, with which he supplied his girlfriend's [geliebten] shop in New Libau, who ran an active [schwunghaften] business with the stolen goods.
      ...Soon after his second marriage Papachen with his brother Joseph founded the firm Gebruder Herzenberg. The shop was located in the Knopf building, on the corner of Korn and Julian streets. After a few years the whole [126] block of buildings up to the market burned down. The shop changed locations several times until the Knopf's rebuilding was complete. The shop again moved back to the old corner, and is still there. However, I don't know what it is called now, since the Bolsheviks who took back Latvia after France collapsed in June 1940 "nationalized" the business, that is took it over without compensation, and your uncle George, the owner, was set out on the street.
      The business went well, but it was no true happiness. Papachen did not get along with uncle Joseph, and Mamachen even less so with aunt Frieda, uncle Joseph's wife. Both had equal rights, and when Papachen hired somebody, and uncle Joseph did not like them, the latter would fire them. But they both withstood it. Shortly before the world war uncle Joseph died, and Papachen became sole owner. Then the war came, almost all Jews in Libau left the city and moved to inner Russia, partly to save what one could take along, partly to flee to the capital invested in Russian [127] banks and enterprises, partly due to forced evacuation of Jews from the border areas. Uncle Leopold moved to Riga, but Papachen stayed; the Germans came, and were greeted as liberators from the Russian domination, since they came a day before the forced evacuation of the Jews, and instead of them the Russian administration fled to the north. The Germans soon showed themselves in all their ostentation. Life was difficult during the occupation time. Papachen remained a Russian patriot and invested his earnings in czarist rubles. When these then dropped down to nothing, he invested in Reichsmark, and so he also lost this portion.
      ...So, after Mamachen's death he lived in company with uncle George in the beautiful home [wohnung] at Gymnasiumstrasse-4. I was there in November 1918 when Germany surrendered in the first world war, in 1923, after Mamachen's death, in 1925 before emigrating to Bolivia [129], and last in 1930 during my European vacation. Papachen lived quietly and withdrawn; he was not a misanthrope, but was disinclined toward any turbulent gathering. He lived esteemed and loved by the congregation, the city, and with few friends from the old guard of his youth. He lived as he wanted and as he believed was right. Unfortunately he lacked Mamachen's nurture. He had already suffered from a kidney ailment earlier, which kept getting worse over the years. He rarely traveled to the German baths, about once every ten years. Shortly after my last visit in 1930 he became severely ill from kidney stones. Once in a while he had some relief, and then he worked resolutely in the business and the congregation. Finally the crisis came in July 1932. He was transferred to a clinic, but there was no help. He suffered with horrible pain, and succumbed to Uremia on the 12 Tamuz (15 July 1932). With him were uncles Erich and George. [130]..."
      ...MY BROTHERS ERICH and George DURING and AFTER WW I...
      ...Your uncle George had just finished Libau realshule when the war broke out. He also was to come to me in Hamburg, [msp 347] but the war got in the way. In the summer of 1915 the Germans occupied Libau and all those subject to military service were taken to a civilian prison camp in Skalmierzyce, on the former German-Polish border. At that time I was already a soldier with the Prussians. Uncle Dodo in Berlin made the necessary applications and we succeeded in freeing George from the prison camp. He stayed in Berlin for a while to attend a commercial school [handelschule], then returned home to Libau where both brothers continued to lead a good life during the war. In Libau nothing was lacking, as before all foods were swimming in sour cream and butter, to the extent permitted by ritual, since the parents household was always kept kosher. Then George entered father's business and stayed in it. After father died in 1932 he married his old friend, the Latvian Linzit Grazde. He also had a son Leonhard, born on 21 June 1932, almost exactly three months before you. When the Bolsheviks occupied Latvia in September 1939 [msp 348] they left him in the business for only a few months, then it was nationalized. He desperately tried to get a visa to Bolivia, but it was impossible. First, immigration to Bolivia was closed, and second Bolivia did not have diplomatic relations with either Russia or Latvia. There were no Bolivian consulates at which to apply for entry. Then the Germans marched in, and till March 1942 we were without news. Then we got a telegram from them, from Krasnoyarsk in Siberia, and found out that a week before the German assault, on 15 June 1941, the Russians evacuated them to Siberia...
      ...In the summer of 1922 father and mother came to Kissingen, where I and Erich visited them. That was the last time I saw mother. The doctors gave worrisome diagnoses. At the end of 1922 she had a stroke which crippled her and took her speech, and in 1923 she was freed by death. During this time, when she was cared for by our cousin Fanny, who now lives in Prescott, AZ, she was almost burned alive. Mother lay in bed with an electric heating pad, which apparently burned out and set the blankets on fire. Mother could neither scream or move in the bed; fortunately the nurse [schwester] noticed the smoke in time and was able to save her...
      ...Mother died in November 1923 (on the 15th of Kislev). When I got the telegram I wanted to got to Libau immediately, and could have gotten there in time for the funeral, but I lost so much time that I did not arrive till the evening after the burial. I got the passport relatively easily, but that was not enough. I had to have a visa from the polish consul because I would travel through the Polish corridor, a Lithuanian one to pass through Lithuania, and then I needed a Latvian one. Each consulate was in a different part of town, and the gentlemen were all so arrogant that one had to wait and beg to get the visa, and the fees for permission to spend a few hours over the holy Lithuanian or other foreign soil were sky-high. Your uncle Erich was not allowed into Latvia at that time, since he was still on their blacklist which included those involved with Bermondt-Analow. I spent the whole mourning period in Libau. [msp 361] However I was not ritually tied to the mourning, was not allowed to say Kadish, and could leave the house at any time, that is I did not have to sit Schiva. The household continued operating the way mother had led it, Anna carded it on. Then it was back to Hamburg. I did not have much work, but enough to live on. I had already long ago started to take foreign currency for instruction or professional reports. At the start of 1924, when the deflation started to be fully effective all my income stopped. From March 1924 on I had no students, no more reports, no longer earned a penny. My only activity was that in the lodge; I read a lot at home. What I needed to live on father sent me, since there was enough for that. I sold the greater part of my equipment, the better large microscope, the complete blowpipe apparatus, and much else. You can imagine, dear Nardi, that I felt plenty bad. I saw no way out. In spite of [msp 362] being lodge president, and having many good connections, it was not possible for me to get the most minor position. I lived and waited, as long as father could afford it he would never have left me in need. Uncle Erich, who was doing well in Berlin at the time, failed me in every respect [versagte in jeder beziehung]. Uncle George was in the business with father and did not have much to say, he was mostly concerned about himself. He was a great fan of water sport, one day it was a new Yacht, another a motorboat. Water sports were popular with Jewish youth in Latvia. They were united in the KYK (Kurland-ischer Yacht Klub), jokingly called the Kurlandischer Juden Klub by the German and Latvian clubs. But the KYK paid them back by winning most of the regattas..."

      BIRTH:
      1. Leo has conflicting birth dates. On his family pedigree he notes:
      Erich, b. 25 Mar 1885 with mother as Fanny Gerson.
      George, b. 19 Nov 1887 with mother as Fanny Gerson.
      His father's memoirs have these two boys born to the second wife, Sara Halpert, in 1895 and late 1896 respectively. The memoirs speak of Robert as the stepchild to Sara, but not Erich and George.
      I use the latter.

      SOURCES_MISC:
      1. Leonardo Herzenberg http://www.herzenberg.net/