Werner Goldberg - Biography

Biography

His father himself had grown up in Königsberg as a member of the Jewish community but had himself baptized in the local Lutheran church as he wished to become assimilated and had married a Christian. After Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933, Mr. Goldberg lost his position under the Nazi law of April 1933, Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service, which expelled Jews from the German Civil Service.

Werner left school in 1935 and became an apprentice at Schneller und Schmeider, a clothing company jointly owned by a Jew and a non-Jew, where many of his colleagues were Jews or mischlinge. Werner's uncle on his mother's side was an opportunist who joined the Nazi party and refused to be seen with the Goldberg family, even avoiding Werner's mother.

At the beginning of 1938 Werner served a six month term in the Reich Labour Service whose uniform, as Werner later recalled, "had a swastika on an armband". On December 1 1938 Werner joined the German Army. He took part in the invasion of Poland on September 1 1939, serving alongside childhood friend Karl Wolf whose father was now a high-ranking SS officer.

Shortly after the beginning of the War, Werner's photograph appeared in the Sunday edition of the Berliner Tageblatt newspaper with the caption "The Ideal German Soldier"; the photograph had been sold to the newspaper by the official army photographer. It was later used on recruitment posters.

In 1940 following the Armistice with France, Werner was expelled from the army under Hitler's order of April 8 1940 which stated that all Mischlinge were to be expelled from the military. He returned to his former workplace which had now changed its name to the Feodor Schmeider Company, having been obliged to remove the Jewish name Schneller. Werner played an increasingly more responsible role within the company, obtaining contracts for uniforms from the army and the navy. He also attended the Reich Board of Labour Studies School (Reichsaussschuss für Arbeitsstudie) where he was one of 4 out of 80 students who passed the test to become a REFA teacher. He then became a Labour Studies Board lecturer on the clothing business, and delivered lectures to organizations and company directors, even publishing an article in the weekly trade publication Textilwoche.

In December 1942, Werner's father was admitted to the Bavaria Hospital. The Gestapo however raided the hospital and sent him to a Jewish hospital which had been requisitioned by the Gestapo for use as prison, with Jews being taken from and sent to Auschwitz. On Christmas Eve, gambling that the guards would be drunk or absent, Werner took his father from the hospital. Mr. Goldberg was soon back in the hands of the Gestapo and in April 1943 was summoned for deportation, but Werner told him not to show up and he was again saved. He became the only member of Werner's family to survive the War.

Werner Goldberg's story formed part of the 2006 documentary Hitler's Jewish Soldiers, a 58 minute film produced by Larry Price in association with the Israel Broadcasting Authority.

Werner Goldberg featured in an episode of the Yesterday TV series "Nazi Collaborators", first screened in the UK in December 2010.

Werner Goldberg died in Berlin on September 28, 2004; he was survived by his wife Gertrud Goldberg, and three children.