Frieda Goldstein

Frieda Goldstein was born on 12 January 1871 in the city of Oswiecim, the daughter of Benjamin and Gitel (Horn) Goldstein. She married Hirsch Leib Braun, a religious teacher from Brzesko, Poland in c. 1900 and was the mother of five children, all born in Oswiecim: Jacob, David Samuel, Gusta, Regina, and Salla.

The entire family moved to Berlin in 1920 where they lived for many years in Berlin’s Scheunenviertel at what was then Grenadierstrasse 19 (today Almstadtstrasse). With the rise of Nazism, Frieda’s adult children sought refuge in other countries. Gusta married Jules Billig in 1930 and they emigrated first to Palestine in 1936, a year later to Paris, and ultimately to the United States in 1939 (Jules) and 1940-41 (Gusta). The oldest son Jakob had moved to Düsseldorf, where he was arrested in 1936 and sentenced a term in several concentration camps. Upon his release in July 1939, he traveled first to Marrakesh and then on to Shanghai, via Mazagon. Sisters Regina and Salla were deported from Germany to Poland in c. 1937, eventually joining the Billigs in Paris, where both lived during the war. Samuel emigrated to England in July of 1939.

In 1933 Frieda Goldstein and several of her adult children moved to Fehrbelliner Strasse 19. By the time of the so-called minority census of 1939, only she and Samuel remained there. After his flight to England, his mother remained at Fehrbelliner Strasse 19, living with a roommate from Brody, Poland, Sara Toperman. Both women were deported on 24 October 1941, as part of the second Berlin transport to the ghetto in Lodz, Poland.

Arriving at the Lodz Ghetto on 25 October 1941, Frieda Goldstein survived its harsh conditions during the winter of 1941-1942. On 15 May 1942 she was sent from Lodz to the murder camp at Chelmno, where she was murdered soon after arrival.