Wedding dress shipped to the United States by a German Jewish woman murdered at Riga

Alice Lubranitzky (later Plocki, 1914-1941) was born to Benno (1880-1942?) and Gertrude (nee Posner, 1885-1942?) Lubranitzsky in Sebnitz, Germany. She had an older brother, Walter (1912-2000), and the family lived on the third floor of the ready-to-wear clothing store (the largest in town) that their parents owned and operated. Seibnitz was a town of 12,000 about 45 kilometers southeast of Dresden, and Alice attended the local elementary school, followed by middle school in Breslau (now Wroclaw, Poland).Walter also attended the local elementary school, but after the fifth grade, his parents sent him to Dresden for schooling. Alice married Robert Plocki (1903-1941) in the early 1930s. The couple lived in Berlin where Robert manufactured women’s dresses. On January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany by President Paul von Hindenburg. Under Hitler, authorities quickly began suppressing the rights and personal freedoms of Jews. On April 1, an official boycott of Jewish-owned stores and businesses was enacted, followed by continued persecution and discrimination of German Jews. Robert’s brother, Erich, who lived in New York, sent an affidavit to allow the couple to immigrate to the United States, but the American Consul only permitted one family member, Robert’s father, to do so because he felt Erich could only afford to support one person. On November 9 and 10, 1938, German officials instigated pogroms of violence and destruction against Jews and their property, known as Kristallnacht. During the pogroms, 30,000 Jewish men were also incarcerated in German concentration camps and held unless they promised to leave Germany. After Kristallnacht, Robert was arrested and imprisoned in Sachsenhausen concentration camp in Germany, where he was given prisoner number 8086, badly beaten, and sustained an injury to his leg. These events spurred many Jews to emigrate from Germany. The Plockis obtained another affidavit to go to the U.S., but Robert’s injury led the American consul to reject their visa applications. Alice’s parents, Benno and Gertrude, believed they were safe from deportation due to Benno’s military service during World War I. They also possessed a special permit that gave them unlimited access to cross the Czechoslovakian border a few miles away. Increasing restrictions eventually forced them to sell their business to a non-Jew, the proceeds from which were placed in an inaccessible, frozen account. Afterwards, the city government confiscated the building without compensating Benno for his equity. In the late 1930s, Benno and Gertrude moved to Dresden. After they left, a neighbor retrieved a trunk from their home, containing Alice’s wedding dress, trousseau, and other linens, which they held onto for the duration of the war. Alice’s brother, Walter, immigrated to the United States, and arrived in New York in September 1938. He eventually moved to Pennsylvania, followed by Maryland, and changed his last name to Lubran. In late January 1942, Benno and Gertrude were deported from Dresden to the Riga ghetto, possibly Jungfernhof, a makeshift concentration camp near Riga. They were both likely killed two months later, but were not officially declared dead until December 1945. After receiving his U.S. citizenship papers in 1943, Walter trained in the War Department’s Military Intelligence Division, known as the Ritchie Boys. He returned to Europe with his unit in October 1944 to December 1945. In mid to late November 1941, Alice and Robert received notification that they were to be deported, along with several thousand other members of the Jewish community in Berlin. While waiting at the assembly point, the Gestapo forced the Jews to sign over their property and homes to the German State. They walked seven kilometers to the rail station, and were forced onto third-class passenger cars supplied by the Reichsbahn (German National Railway). Alice and Robert were deported on transport Da 31 from Berlin to the Riga ghetto in German-occupied Latvia, arriving on November 30, 1941. Da 31 was the seventh of over 60 transports of 35,000 Jews from Berlin to ghettos and killing sites in Eastern Europe. All 1,053 deportees on their transport, including Alice and Robert, were killed in the Rumbula forest on the day they arrived. This was done under the orders of Friedrich Jeckeln, the local SS commander, who did so without authorization from Berlin.

Walter Heinz Lubran (1912-2000) was born Walter Lubranitzki on 29 July 1912 in Sebnitz, Germany to Benno (b. 1860) and Gertrude (née Posner, b. 1885) Lubranitzki. He had one sister, Alice (b. 1914, later Alice Plocki). Walter’s parents owned the largest clothing store in Sebnitz. They owned the building where their store was, and lived above it. When he was a child, Walter’s parents sent him to Dresden to receive a better education. After Walter graduated in 1930, he wanted to become an attorney, but restrictions on the number of Jews that could attend college prevented him from pursuing this goal. His father arranged for him to have an apprenticeship with a department store called Hurwitz, possibly in Leibnitz or Leipzig. He returned to Sebnitz in 1932 to work for his father. By 1938, Benno was forced to sell his business and the building and received no compensation. Around 1939 Benno and Gertrude moved to Dresden while Walter remained in Sebnitz. Both of his parents later perished in the Holocaust. Walter’s sister moved to Berlin with her husband Robert Plocki. They applied for visas to immigrate to the United States with the help of Robert’s brother Erich, who lived in New York. However, he was only able to secure a visa for his father. Robert and Alice were deported to the Riga Ghetto in 1941 where they both likely perished. Through Abraham Fingerhut, a business connection of his father, Walter received a visa and immigrated to the United States in September 1938. He initially lived in New York, then found a job at Davidson’s department store in Ambridge, Pennsylvania. While in Ambridge, Walter met his future-wife Pearl Amstey (1904-1974) through a refugee organization. In July 1939 he took a job at a department store in Cumberland, Maryland. Walter and Pearl married on 16 January 1942 and lived in Pittsburgh. They had three sons, Bernard, Albert, and Robert. Walter was drafted in March 1943. He was sent to Camp Ritchie and trained in intelligence. His unit went overseas in September 1944 and were assigned to the 84th Infantry Division. Walter was later assigned to the 21st Armored Division and was stationed in Pilsen, Czechoslovakia after the end of the war. He returned home in December 1945 and was honorably discharged in January 1946 with the rank of Master Sergeant. He and Pearl moved to Steubenville, Ohio to run a clothing store with some of Pearl’s relatives.

The wedding dress was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2018 by Bernard Lubran, the son of Walter Lubran and nephew of Alice Lubran Plocki.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Bernard Lubran