Goldstein family papers

Herman Goldstein (1889-1943) was born on June 29, 1889 in Herford, Germany to Veterinarian and Eugenie Goldstein. He had two brothers, Arthur and Erwin Goldstein. Arthur Goldstein died while serving as a German soldier during World War I. Herman also served as an officer in the Germany Army and was awarded the Iron Cross medal. On November 6, 1927, Herman married Rita (Recha) Grubner (1893-1979) at the Lutzow Strasse Synagogue in Berlin, Germany. Rita was born in Berlin on May 15, 1893 to David Grubner and his wife. On October 30, 1928, Herman and Rita’s son Heinz Goldstein (later Henry Gallant) was born in Berlin. When Heinz was nine years old an SS officer accosted him and wrote the word “Jude” on his forehead. Afterwards, his parents sent Heinz to a Kinderheim in Potsdam, Germany. During Kristallnacht 1938, a group of Hitler Youth stormed the camp and terrorized the children. Heinz, who had been playing soccer at the time of the attack ran through streets littered with glass back to his parents’ house. On May 13, 1939, the Goldstein family set sail for Havana, Cuba aboard the MS St. Louis. After being denied entry into the Cuba and the United States, the family disembarked in France. Heinz was sent to a school outside of Paris. Rita Goldstein was settled in Le Mans, France and Herman Goldstein was interned in Laval prison and later Gurs internment camp. By 1940, Rita and Heinz were living in Paris. Following the German army’s entry into Paris, Rita and Heinz moved to Nice, France. There Heinz had his Bar Mitzvah. His father, still held in an internment camp, was unable to attend the celebration, despite several requests for his release. On August 5, 1942, Herman was deported from Gurs internment camp to Auschwitz concentration camp on transport 17, train 901-12. He perished at Auschwitz concentration camp in either 1942 or 1943. Late in 1942, Rita and Heinz hid in the attic of a Gentile family with three other families. After several days they were able to obtain false identification papers and escaped to Switzerland. A taxi drove them to the French-Swiss border where they crossed the border on foot. They were arrested by Swiss border guards and placed in a refugee internment camp. Heinz was sent to live with a Swiss family for the next two years but was able to visit his mother every six weeks. In 1947, Rita and Heinz Goldstein immigrated to the United States. Erwin Goldstein and his wife, Herman Goldstein’s brother and sister-in-law, were deported from Berlin to the Theresienstadt concentration camp, where they died. Erwin Goldstein’s daughter, Liesel Goldstein left Germany for Israel on a Kindertransport in 1939, and eventually settled in Israel.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Funding Note: The cataloging of this collection has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.

Henry Gallant donated the Goldstein family papers to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1989.