A letter from Shulamith Goldberg (Siaulaia,
Lithuania) to her cousin Dora Shapiro (Johannesburg, South Africa)
Click here to see the
letter full size
Click to go to the Goldberg family
tree.
The original letter is in the possession
of Shulamit's sister Sarah Olkienitski. Sarah and Shulamith went
through the 2nd World War together. They were in the ghetto in
Siaulaia, and then in the concentration camp at Stutthof. The
camp was liberated by the Russians in March 1945. Sarah was in a high
fever
for a couple of weeks, and when she could walk again she found that
Shulamith was in hospital and very ill. They were transported in cattle
trucks to a place near Moscow, and Shulamith died in a hospital on 1st
August 1945. Sarah recovered, and returned to Lithuania in October that
year, from where she fled illegally to Poland and then to Munich. Two
years later she sailed to Israel on the ill-fated ship "Altalena".
Click here to see the
letter full size
POSTCARDS WRITTEN BY ZELIG GOLDBERG TO
FAMILY IN SOUTH AFRICA
Sarah
Olkienitski gave me 11 postcards from Ukraine to South Africa written
by Zelig Goldberg (her grandfather and my great-grandfather) to his
daughter Roddeh and husband Isaac Shapiro (my grandparents) in
1915-1916.
At the time of writing, Zelig Goldberg and his immediate family had
moved and were living and working in the
Bilopillya (Belopolye) Kiev Province in the Ukraine. Other family
members were still in Lithuania, some in Zeimilis near Sialai (Shavel).
The letters were addressed to Isaac Shapiro in Kimberley South Africa. (see picture of address side of
one of the postcards.)
In the next few weeks I will
post pictures of all the postcards with
translations. The contents give
a good picture of the hard times faced by our ancestors in Easter
Europe at the time of World War I.
One of the postcards is reproduced below, with a
translation of the original Russian into English. The Wissotzky
referred to is the tea company which still exists today. When the
postcards were written the Wissotzky Tea Company,
owned and managed by a Jewish
Russian family, was the largest tea company in the world, and
apparently
they helped Jewish families in South Africa (presumably through their
agents there) transfer money to relatives in (Russian) Eastern Europe.
Dear children! We are all
in good health
thank God and mother is in good health thank God too.
It is astonishing that we do
not receive letters from you. We received S21 r from you via Wissotzky,
Moscow. I wrote to
you.
Golde, Leyzer and the children are in good health, thank God. She lives
in
the city of Kursk 6 hours of travel. Neither we nor they have income.
Write to
us about yourselves and about the children. Are you in good health. My
address is
the city of Belopolye, Charkov Guberniya,
Kladbishenskaya St.,
House #10, Potetni. I am
waiting for your letter.
Father Goldberg.
HAND CARVING BY
LEIBA (LOUIS) NICKEL (1888-1945)
We have a few egg cups carved by Leiba (on the right). We still use them, although it is obvious eggs were much smaller in those days, as only a small part of the egg bottom fits in the cup.
See Nickel/Nochimovicz family tree.