| 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:
HL 106/069 shows b. in Goldingen and d. in Libau, md. to Betty.
Worked for the iron firm Samuel Michaelson.
Thomasstrasse. Libau.
2. Courland (Kurzeme in Latvian, Kurland in German) is the historically distinct area of modern day Latvia bounded by the Baltic Sea to the west, Lithuania to the south, and the Dvina River (now Daugava) to the North. Its historic capital was Mitau (now Jelgava). It had ice-free Baltic ports with commercial and strategic importance. At its height Courland was a prosperous and cultured German-speaking Duchy. Courland was a separate Gubernia (Province) of the Russian Empire from 1797-1918. 50-60% of the Jews living in Riga just north of Courland had family roots in Courland. The names of the various towns have changed now that the area is part of Latvia (new-old as of early 1900s):
Aizpute-Hasenpoth
Jelgava-Mitau
Kuldiga-Goldingen
Liepaja-Libau
Piltene-Pilten
Talsi-Talsen
Ventspils-Windau
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}.
The four brothers were all bald. They all had received a very poor cheder education. My father was the only one who could speak and write [83] German with no trouble, who had taught himself a remarkable education, who sometimes read a book or appreciated good music. Everything he knew of western and Jewish culture was entirely self-taught. The other three brothers remained at the point at which they had left the Cheder. They never left Libau and were very narrow-minded, and though they were my uncles, they and I did not have any contact areas. They never understood my student needs, and never helped me...
...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."
BIRTH:
1. Date and place are unsubstantiated guesses only by Kenny Petersen.
SOURCES_MISC:
1. Leonardo Herzenberg http://www.herzenberg.net/
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Chris & Julie Petersen's Genealogy
Abt 1864 - Aft 1941 (~ 77 years)