Chris & Julie Petersen's Genealogy

Nikolaus or Kolja Naphtali Herzenberg

Male Aft 1905 - Aft 1941  (> 35 years)


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  • Name Nikolaus or Kolja Naphtali Herzenberg 
    Born Aft 1905  of Liepaja (Libau), Courland, Latvia Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Gender Male 
    Died Aft Apr 1941  of Liepaja (Libau), Courland, Latvia Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Person ID I4102  Petersen-de Lanskoy
    Last Modified 27 May 2021 

    Father Leopold Herzenberg,   b. Abt 1864, Kuldiga (Goldingen), Courland, Latvia Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. Aft Apr 1941, Liepaja (Libau), Courland, Latvia Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age ~ 77 years) 
    Mother Betty,   d. Aft Apr 1941, of Liepaja (Libau), Courland, Latvia Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Married 1905  Minsk, Belarus Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Family ID F1934  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family Lett,   b. Aft 1905, of Liepaja (Libau), Courland, Latvia Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Last Modified 28 May 2021 
    Family ID F1965  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:
      Name variations: Kolja (Nicolaus) (Nikolai) Naphtali (Nikolaus)
      HL 082 shows d. in Libau.
      Named after his grandfather Naphtali. Worked with his father at the iren firm Samuel Michelson.

      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:
      "The Generation of My Parents
      [78] My grandparents Naftali and Nese had four sons and six daughters: Leonhard, Joseph, Ignatz, Leopold, Sarah, Ernestine, Sophie, Fanny, Dora, and Lina.
      All four brothers lived in Libau...
      The youngest, uncle Leopold, married in Minsk, while I was a student in Riga. Aunt Betty was less beautiful than able, German was difficult for her until the last. Uncle Leopold worked for the iron firm Samuel Michelson except for a short time when he was independent. He was always extremely able and diligent, he built up some wealth, had a nice house in the Thomasstrasse, with wonderful fruit and flower gardens. They had two children, Mascha and Kolja, the latter named after grandfather Naphtali (Nikolaus). Only the first letter is the same, but I doubt that the name Naphtali can still be used in western Europe, since it sounds just like the [81] naphthalene of moth-balls. Uncle Leopold and aunt Betty are still (April 1941) living in Libau, as well as Kolja, who works in the firm with his father. I don't know what became of Mascha. She was a pretty, clever, typically eastern Jewish girl; she married an eastern Jewish engineer-chemist Feodor Leszinsky whom she learned to know and love during her student time in Paris and Brussels. They had a daughter Claude. So Mascha ended up with the name of the polish princess Maria Lezinska, wife of King Ludwig the XV of France. Every time that they passed through the polish corridor on trips to Libau and showed the passport to the Polish officers, the latter were quite confused, since one could never know - who knows everything so well - that the thing went back 200 years. Leszinskys lived in Paris where old jewelry was melted and pure gold, silver,and platinum [msp 82] for jewelers were produced. I met him in 1930, at uncle Leopold and aunt Betty's silver wedding anniversary, when I was on vacation if Libau. He offered me a position which I did not accept. The things apparently went very wrong there, but I could not find out what was the matter. It seems that Leszinsky went out of the country, and Mascha with the child were to follow. I have heard nothing from them since. Aunt Betty and the other relatives in Libau sealed their lips air-tight, so I do not know how and when Mascha was surprised by the second world war.
      {Note added 21 June 42: Mascha went to Paris from Libau via Stockholm and London in August 39, and after a week to the United States, where her husband, Fedja had gone earlier. She wrote me in March 1942, they were then living in new York, he is employed by Philip Brothers. They changed the name, and are now called Leston. Uncle Leopold and aunt Betty were in the Libau ghetto, and no trace of Kolja, who had married a Lett}."

      BIRTH:
      1. Date and place are unsubstantiated guesses only by Kerry Petersen.

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