Gertrude Goldberg

Gertrude (Trude) Goldberg (nee Schiffmann) was born in Vienna in 1930. Her father was from Poland and her mother from Vienna. Her father was from an ultra-orthodox family of 7 boys. He left them for a better life in Vienna. Her mother came from a middling orthodox family of 7. Her parents ran a delicatessen shop in Vienna’s 2nd district. Trude was the second of 5 children, 4 girls and one boy. She attended a Jewish Elementary School and had an orthodox upbringing. Her father acted as a voluntary Chazan in a shteibel and blew the shofar. Trude remembered seeing Hitler as his motorcade passed by and remembered being constantly scared after the Anschluss. Her father’s shop was smashed and he fled to Vichy France. Her mother arranged for the 3 oldest girls to go on a Kindertransport organized by Schonfeld. They left at the end of December 1938, arriving in Newcastle on 31 December.  About 300 children were on the transport and 20 ended up in Sunderland. Her older sister stayed in London and she and Ruth came to different families in Sunderland. 

Trude stayed with the family of Ethel and Max Shapero, who had a son. She had never been in a house or slept in a bed with blankets and she spoke no English. The children spent 3 months learning English in the Cheder rooms of Ryhope Rd Shul and then she attended Commercial Rd Elementary School. She was an object of curiosity and met some anti-Semitism. There were only 5 Jewish children at the school. Over time she settled down and later went to West Park School and then to Bede Grammar School. She quickly forgot her German. The family evacuated twice during the war. At the beginning for a few months to Ingleton, Yorkshire and during the bombing for a short time to Bolton. She belonged to Newcastle Maccabi, went twice a week to the Cinema and attended monthly gatherings in Sunderland. After the war her elder sister discovered their parents and siblings had been killed in Auschwitz. Trude did a commercial course after school and went to work for her guardian in the office. 

She married Stanley Goldberg, a Leeds boy, on 17 June 1956 and went to live in Leeds. He was in wholesale ladies' fashions and she worked for him. They adopted two girls.