Lieba Goldberg née Ullmann

Lieba Scheindla Goldberg
Lieba was born on 16th July 1906 in Zakliczyn which is in present day Poland. She was the youngest of ten children born to Aron Wolf Ullmann from Kasna Gorna and Sara Ryfka Riegelhaupt from Jamna. Lieba had three brothers, Jakob (1886), Abraham Isaak (Isy) (1888) and Towia Gutman (David) (1895) and six sisters Amalia (Manja) (1885), Gitel (1892), Cypora (1893), Blima Ruchel (Bertha) (1897), Pesel ((Paula) (1900) and Hudes (Helene) born 1903, although sadly, both Gitel and Cypora died as infants in 1894.
Zakliczyn began as a market settlement, called Opatkowice, on the right bank of the Dunajec River. In 1557 a man named Spytek Jordan established a town in the area of the settlement and named it Zakliczyn. In 1772
the town was annexed by the Austrian Empire and remained part of Galicia until 1918. Jewish settlement in the town began in the mid-19th century and by 1921 Jews accounted for 25% of the population of about 1200 people. At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, there were several antisemitically motivated riots in Zakliczyn, which reached a peak after the end of the First World War in November and December 1918, when Zakliczyn was ceded to Poland and numerous Jewish communities in Western Galicia repeatedly became the target of pogroms. Probably as the result of increasing social, economic, and political disadvantages, and later, the destruction caused by the war - Zakliczyn was destroyed by heavy Austrian -Russian fighting, from 1906 onwards the family began to leave their homeland.
It is likely that Lieba never met her brother Jakob as he emigrated to the USA in May 1906, two months before she was born, and he was followed by Isy in June 1907, David in June 1911, and Bertha in September 1913. Manja had moved to Berlin by 1911 and she was later joined by Isy who settled in Berlin after marrying Jenny in 1917 . The rest of the family stayed in Zakliczyn where Aron Wolf was employed firstly as a labourer then later as a Religious teacher. Unfortunately, Aron Wolf died in 1918 and it is probably after this that Lieba, along with her mother Sara Ryfka and sisters Paula and Helene moved to Berlin.
In Berlin Lieba Scheindla met Isaak Goldberg and they were married by Jewish Rites in about 1924 when Lieba was only eighteen. They couldn’t have a civil ceremony at the time as Isaak didn’t have the necessary papers as a result of his stateless status. The couple first lived at Prenzlauer Strasse 4, with Gotthilf Goldberg, possibly a relative of Isaak and the following year, on 23rd November 1925, their only child Arnold was born in the Friedrichshain Krankenhaus.
When Arnold was about 5 years old Isaak moved his family to Paul Singer Strasse 1 later known as Brauner Weg 1, where he supported everyone by running a shoemaking and repair business from a workshop in the basement, whilst the family lived in an apartment behind the workshop. Arnold went to a local Jewish Community school in a building that also housed an independent Synagogue and Lieba, took on some temporary jobs to help the family finances. The family were happy living there surrounded by Lieba’s family who they visited regularly. For much of the time Lieba’s mother, Sara Ryfka Ullmann lived with them.
This situation continued, but as life became more difficult for Jewish people following the introduction of the Nuremburg laws in 1935, Isaak and Lieba tried to emigrate. Isaak applied for them to go to Palestine, Shanghai and even Argentina but as he was stateless every application was refused. Along with some friends, Isaak even tried to cross the border into Belgium but was sent back, fortunately without being imprisoned. As a result of Kristallnacht on 9th November 1938 Lieba and Isaak decided that Arnold should leave on the Kindertransport, which saw him depart Berlin on the 4th Kindertransport on 4th January 1939. Soon after Arnold left, on 15th March 1939, his Grandmother, Lieba’s mother, died. After the war started Isaak and Lieba remained living at Brauner Weg 1 and Isaak continued with his shoemaking business although it was now “fronted” by an “Aryan” friend. Lieba, a seamstress by trade, was forced to perform slave labour making armaments at Ehrich & Graetz, a metal fabrication and electronics firm in Berlin - Treptow. Once war had started Lieba and Isaak were able to have a civil wedding and they married on 24th May 1940 in Berlin Mitte
Although only 13 years old when he arrived in England, Arnold managed to find a job for his mother and a visa was applied for but sadly the outbreak of war prevented her from taking up the job and Lieba remained in Berlin. Life continued in this way with Arnold receiving regular communications from his parents (mainly written by Lieba) firstly by regular letters then later via the Red Cross until March 1943. As Jews, Isaak and Lieba’s rights continued to be eroded until the end of February 1943 when, as a result of the “factory action” requiring all remaining Jews to be deported, they were rounded up on 27th February 1943 and taken to a collection camp. On 3rd March 1943 Isaak and Lieba, along with Lieba’s sister Pesel Majerowicz (known as Paula) were deported on transport 33 to Auschwitz Birkenau. Paula’s husband Robert Majerowicz was also deported to Auschwitz Birkenau the following day. Lieba’s brother Isy died of natural causes in May 1943 and only thirteen days later his wife Jenny was deported to Theresienstadt, only to also die in Auschwitz Birkenau in September 1943
Arnold Ullmann, Isaak, and Lieba’s son survived the war in exile in England where he remained for the rest of his life until his death in 2020. He married and had two daughters, five grandchildren and four great grandchildren. Lieba’s siblings Jacob, David and Bertha survived the war in the USA and Manja managed to flee to Buenos Aires in May 1941 to join her son. Manja’s daughter avoided being deported to Auschwitz Birkenau on 24th August 1943 by going into hiding but sadly died on 21 May 1945 from pneumonia few days after the end of the war. Lieba’s sister Helene fled to Poland in September 1939, but her fate is unknown.




References
Berlin Address Directories 1799-1970 - Digitale Landesbibliothek Berlin (zlb.de)
Local history | Virtual Shtetl (sztetl.org.pl)
Zakliczyn - Wikipedia
Zakliczyn Jewish Military Cemetery (esjf-surveys.org)
Stumbling Stones in Berlin | Places & Biographies of the Stumbling Stones in Berlin (stolpersteine-berlin.de)
Lieba Scheindla Ullmann - Facts (ancestry.co.uk)
Ehrich & Graetz - Wikipedia
Lieba Ullmann (mappingthelives.org)