Goldlust family papers
Extent and Medium
box
1
Creator(s)
- Goldlust family
Biographical History
Bernhard Goldlust (1896-1943) was born in Łopuszno, Poland to Rifka and Leib Goldlust. He married Manja Biederman (also known as Malka, born in Łopuszno, 1894-1942), daughter of Perel and Ziskind Biederman. Bernhard was a tailor and owned a clothing business in Konstanz, Germany. He and Manja had two children, Leo (b. 1924) and Paula (later Paula Blue, 1930-2008). During Kristallnacht in November 1938, Bernhard was arrested and deported to the Dachau concentration camp. After his release he immigrated to England with plans to then bring the rest of his family over. He was first sent to the Kitchener Camp for Refugees but was living in London by 1941. In 1940 Manja, Leo, and Paula were deported to the Gurs internment camp in Southern France. In the spring of 1941 they were transferred to the Rivesaltes internment camp. Leo and Paula were released from Rivesaltes through the Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants (OSE). Leo was sent to Moissac, France where he was with Eclaireurs Israelites (Jewish scouts). Paula was sent to the Masgelier children’s home from October 1941 until summer 1943 when OSE had to abandon the home. She was then hidden in Chambery and Annecy, and also briefly with the Salvation Army in a monastery. She was then taken to Switzerland where she survived the war. Her brother also survived. In 1942 Manja was deported from Rivesaltes to the Auschwitz concentration camp where she perished. Bernhard died in London in 1943. Leo and Paula both later immigrated to the United States and settled in Illinois. Paula married Abraham Blitzblau (later Abe Blue, 1910-1982), also a Holocaust survivor.
Archival History
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Paula Goldlust Blue
The collection was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum by Paula Blue in 2002 and 2007. The collections previously accessioned as 2002.471 and 2008.717.1 have been merged into this collection.
Scope and Content
Documents, correspondence, and photographs regarding the Holocaust experiences of the Goldlust family of Konstanz, Germany including Manja Goldlust and her children Paula and Leo’s deportations to the Gurs and Rivesaltes internment camps in France, correspondence from the camps with Manja’s husband Bernhard Goldlust in England, and Bernhard’s attempts to help them immigrate to England. Biographical material consists of Bernhard’s Foreigner passport (Fremden Pass), primarily postwar identification documents of Paula (some documents place her birth as 1928), an affidavit and related documents regarding Bernhard’s attempts to help his family flee Germany, a receipt issued to Leo after he retrieved his father’s belongings in London in 1951, and identification documents issued to Paula’s future husband Abraham Blitzblau. Correspondence consists of letters, postcards, and telegrams exchanged between Bernhard in London and Manja, Paula, and Leo in Gurs and Rivesaltes and from the children after they were released. The photographs include a prewar image of the Goldlust family, wartime photographs taken at Château du Masgelier, Paula’s 1947 passport photograph, and a 1997 portrait of Paula with her children and grandchildren. Also included is a postwar 1945 image depicting Abraham Blitzblau’s brother Daniel in a white coat at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp observing Germans burying Jewish victims.
System of Arrangement
The collection is arranged as three series. Series 1. Biographical material, 1934-1951 Series 2. Correspondence, 1939-1942 Series 3. Photographs, circa 1938-1997
People
- Blue, Paula Goldlust, 1928-
Corporate Bodies
- Kitchener Camp for Refugees.
- Château du Masgelier (Orphanage)
- Bergen-Belsen (Concentration camp)
- Rivesaltes (Concentration camp)
- Gurs (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Le Grand-Bourg (France)
- Konstanz (Germany)
- Hidden children (Holocaust)--France.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Children.
- England--Emigration and immigration.
Genre
- Document
- Affidavits.
- Photographs.
- Correspondence.