Goldfeld and Rauchbach families papers

Beate Rocker (nicknamed Deta) was born Beate Goldfeld on 7 November 1924 in Vienna, Austria to Israel and Dora Goldfeld. Her father Israel owned a sweater factory in Vienna. Her mother Dora (née Heitner, 1883-1942) was born in Novosolitza, Romania (Novoselytsia, Ukraine). Beate had one brother, Albert (later Albert Goldfield, 1914-2005), who was born on 26 April 1914 in Novosolitza. Beate left Vienna on a Kindertransport on 11 July 1939 and arrived in Harwich, England. She went to live with a Jewish family, the Hersbergs, in Skegness, a seaside town on the Lincolnshire coast. She worked at her host family’s restaurant and received some letters from her family back home. After the house in Skegness was bombed, and she went to live in a women’s hostel in London. Per the Guardianship (Refugee Children) Act of 1944, she was listed as a ward of the Lord Gorell, under the care of the Refugee Children’s Movement, Ltd. In London she worked in a factory spray painting bombs. After the war, she met Otto Rauchbach, also a Jewish refugee from Vienna. They married in 1945, and their daughter Doreen was born in 1947. Their son Steven was born in 1949. Around 1948, they changed their last name from Rauchbach to Rocker. On 30 December 1953, the family immigrated to the United States aboard the SS Ryndam. They settled in Washington Heights in upper Manhattan where Otto worked as a tailor. Both Beate and Otto became naturalized citizens in 1959. Her father died in Vienna on 16 June 1941. Her mother was deported from Vienna on 14 May 1942 to the Izbica ghetto where she likely perished. Beate’s brother Albert went to Torino, Italy in 1936 to study medicine. He went to Bern, Switzerland in 1938 to flee antisemitic laws aimed at Jewish students, but returned in 1939 after his visa renewal was refused. He was arrested shortly after the start of WWII and deported to Notaresco on 18 June 1940. He was transferred to Ferramonti in May 1942 and liberated by the Allies on 3 September 1943. After liberation he went to Florence to continue his medical studies. After the war, Albert located his sister, Beate, and visited her in London in December 1946. In 1948, he got a job as a physician with the IRO and worked in Bagnoli, Bari, and Trani. He married an Italian Jewish woman named Lilliana Mariani (1920-2009) in Florence and the couple, along with their first child, immigrated to the U.S. in April 1952.

Otto Rocker 1919-2007, nicknamed Fred) was born Otto Rauchbach on 15 March 1919 in Vienna, Austria to Hermann and Marie Rauchbach. His father Hermann Rauchbach (1890-1942) was born on 16 January 1890 in Rădăuți, Romania. His mother Marie Rauchbach (1893-1942) was born Marie Brandstetter on 19 October 1893 in Vienna. Otto had one younger brother, Kurt (later Curt Rocker, 1921-2008), who was born on 11 May 1921 in Vienna. Otto was involved with a Zionist movement as a teenager, and went to England before WWII. He was sent to Canada aboard the SS Ettrick on 3 July 1940 as an “alien internee,” but returned to England on 19 October 1941. He worked in London as a tailor. After the war, he met fellow Viennese refugee Beate Goldfeld in 1945 and they married the same year. Their daughter Doreen was born in 1947, and their son Steven in 1949. Around 1948, they changed their last name from Rauchbach to Rocker. On 30 December 1953, the family immigrated to the United States aboard the SS Ryndam. They settled in Washington Heights in upper Manhattan where Otto worked as a tailor. Both Beate and Otto became naturalized citizens in 1959. Otto’s parents were both deported from Vienna to Maly Trostinec (near Minsk, Belarus) on 27 May 1942 where they perished. His younger brother Kurt survived the war in Holland through a series of ruses and false identities. In August 1942, he was to be deported to a camp, but enlisted a doctor to schedule him for a false surgery, delaying it. A Nazi doctor examined him and determined there was nothing wrong with him, so he fled the hospital.A nurse had given him the name of someone in Bilthoven who helped him go underground. Kurt had a Dutch identity card and worked as a traveling salesman selling perfume. In the spring of 1943, when Dutch young men (18-24) were required to work in Germany, Kurt went to Hamburg to work as a gardener. Four days after his arrival, the Allied bombing of the city commenced. When foreign workers were ordered to participate in the cleanup, Kurt fled, using the false German identity of Gert Furhmann. He joined the others evacuating from Hamburg and made his way to Vienna via Leipzig, Dresden, and Berlin. Once he reached Vienna he stayed with his Aunt Dora, who was in hiding. He later returned to Holland and resumed his work as a traveling perfume salesman. On 18 October 1947 Kurt immigrated to the United States from Southampton, England aboard the Queen Mary. He also changed his name to Curt Rocker.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum collection, gift of Doreen Samuel and Steven Rocker

Donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2020 by Doreen Samuel and Steven Rocker, children of Beate and Otto Rocker.