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The Jewish branch of the family Verderber and the Third Reich

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Introduction

The Verderber family also has a Jewish branch. This branch spread from Eastern Europe to the West, for example to Brussels (Belgium), as it is shown by the almanac of genealogy and biography of the Jews of Brussels from Claude C. Geudevert. In its index there is an entry “Verderber (1908)” (see http://www.genami.org/documents/Fichier_Belge/liste-v.pdf), but it is unknown, which persons are meant. Moreover there were Jewish Ferderbers. A lot of sources are related to persons who were deported and killed during the Third Reich. But fortunately some Jewish family members survived.

There were also non-Jewish Verderbers who were deported to concentration camps.

Victims of the Shoah

First the killed or deported persons, ordered by the last residence until deportation (if known, otherwise by the place of the concentration camp):

Cologne (Germany, Köln):
  • Alwine Pflanzer, birth name Verderber, born on 17/3/1888, deported from Cologne to Auschwitz (Oświecim, Poland), declared as dead.

    You get more details in the article about the Verderbers of Cologne.

  • Gella Verderber, birth name Rosenzweig, born on 20/2/1889 in Tarnow (Tarnów, Poland) , resident in Cologne, was deported to the Polish border town Bentschen (Zbaszyń) in October 1938, together with her youngest son Adolf Verderber, born on 22/2/1930 in Cologne. Both died at Limanow (Limanowa) in Poland in 1942 or 1943.

    Her oldest child, the only daughter Netta Verderber, born on 11/6/1921 in Cologne, was preparing her emigration to Palestine at the Zionistic training camp Rüdnitz (German transcription without vowel-mutation is Ruednitz) near Bernau when she was deported. She died probably in 1943.

    The both older sons could be saved and settled down in Israel.

    You get more details in the article about the Verderbers of Cologne.

Irsa (Hungary, southward from Budapest):
  • Sándor Ferderber, born on 24/2/1892 at Irsa, with residence there, as protective custody Jew from Hungary with the prisoner’s number 108302 arrived on 18/9/1944 at the concentration camp Dachau (westward from Munich, further information at Concentration Camp Dachau Memorial Place) coming from Auschwitz (Oświecim, Poland), from there sent back to Auschwitz on 25/9/1944 (Dachau list, page 1393/Fa.; see http://www.jewishgen.org/databases/holocaust/ with key word “Ferderber”) and finally died at the concentration camp Mühldorfer Hart at an unknown date (see Concentration Camp Mühldorfer Hart Memorial Place (list of deaths without death date)).

    The concentration camp Mühldorfer Hart (community Mettenheim, district Mühldorf upon Inn, eastward from Munich, further information at Concentration Camp Mühldorfer Hart Memorial Place) was founded in September 1944 to build a bunker for the production of aeroplanes. On 7/10/1944 there was a revolt at Auschwitz-Birkenau, and on 1/11/1944 Himmler ordered no more to gas there. Therefore it is possible, that Sandor Ferderber not reached Auschwitz when leaving Dachau but on the way was redirected to the concentration camp Mühldorfer Hart.

    A memorial on the Jewish cemetery of the Hungarian town Albertirsa in the district of Pest remembers besides Sándor Ferderber to following victims: Árpád Ferderber, Árpádné Ferderber, Miklós Ferderber, and Sándorné Ferderber. We can suppose that this is a whole Family. (See Hungarian Holocaust Memorials Database  over http://www.jewishgen.org/databases/holocaust/ with key word “Ferderber”.)

Krakow (Kraków, Poland):
  • Moshe Mordechai Verderber, born 1892 in Auschwitz (Oświecim, Poland), Upholsterer with wife Lea Mindel Otremski, with residence until and during the war at Krakow. Father Shlomo Yehoshua, mother Frieda. Died at the concentration camp Majdanek or Treblinka at an unknown date. Two daughters survived. Reported by Frieda Katz 1956 at Kfar Saba. (Source: Hall of the names in Yad Vashem, see Database of the Jews from the Auschwitz region (Oshpitzin Yizkor Database) over http://www.jewishgen.org/databases/holocaust/ with key word “Verderber”.)

    In the lists of murdered persons at Yad Vashem there is an entry about a Mindla Verderber, born in 1892, with residence in Poland and died 1942 at Krakow, which is supposedly related to the wife Lea Mindel Otremski. (See http://yad-vashem.org.il/download/remembrance/bycountry/POLAND.pdf.)

Kupiak (Kupjak, Croatia, district Delnice, eastward from Rijeka):
  • Vlado Ferderber, born on 5/7/1926 at Kupiak, with residence at Kupiak No. 127, arrived on 11/10/1943 at the concentration camp Dachau and was transferred from there to the concentration camp Buchenwald on 31/10/1943.

    Vlado Ferderber was not Jewish. He survived and returned to Kupiak. For more details see Vlado Ferderber from Kupiak and the Third Reich.

Leipzig (Germany):
  • Joseph Verderber and his wife Leah from Leipzig vanished without trace, and also their daughter Clara Verderber. Three other children survived. You get more details in the biography of Leo Verderber.

Milan (Italy, Milano):
Prešov (Slovakia):
  • Viktor Ferderber, born on 30/6/1894 at Prešov, residence at Prešov, Maichowa 4, as protective custody Jew from Slovakia with the prisoner’s number 119371 arrived on 27/10/1944 from Auschwitz (Oświecim, Poland) at the concentration camp Dachau (westward of Munich, further information at Concentration Camp Dachau Memorial Place) and died there on 17/12/1944 (Dachau list 1393/Fa.; see http://www.jewishgen.org/databases/holocaust/ with key word “Ferderber”).

Ravensbrück (Brandenburg, Germany):

This list needs not to be correct or complete! If you know more about the fate of the named persons or have more names, please tell it to us.

Survivors of the Shoah

Nevertheless, some of the Jewish family members have survived.

For example the artist Ferdynand Verderber from Krakow (Kraków) in Poland (today named Ephraim Peleg, look at http://pelegstudio.com) and his brother survived the Shoah as children, but their parents were murdered in the concentration camps.

When Ferdynand was four years old, his family, which belonged to the upper middle-class, was forced to move to a tiny apartment in the Krakow Ghetto, which they shared with an aunt, uncle, and their two daughters. When life in the ghetto further deteriorated, Ephraim and his brother were hidden at the home of his non-jewish housekeeper where they had to hide their Jewish identity. Until the war ended, they were constantly moved to different hiding places. After the war, both brothers were sent to live in a kibbutz in Israel. Ephraim Peleg went to the United States of America in 1978 and is still living there. (See http://www.chgs.umn.edu/Visual___Artistic_Resources/Hololay3P2.pdf.)

The uncle, a brother of his father was killed in the concentration camps, whereas his wife and his both daughters survived (after information of Ephraim Peleg). The case of his parents and his uncle shows that the list of the victims above is already very incomplete.

On a list of Jewish orphans from Poland with lost identity there are two children, Ferdynand Verderber (born on 5/5/1937, archive number 2414) and Henryk Verderber (born on 9/8/1939, archive number 2414), probably being Ephraim Peleg and his brother, see http://hebrew.gfh.org.il/children%20with%20lost%20id/chtuv.htm.

The same source tells about another orphan, Reisa Verderber (born on 27/5/1938, archive number 2385), but there under the name “Verdeber” – doubtless a clerical error.

Further Jewish Verderbers from Poland who survived the Shoah (from the Register of Jewish Survivors I and II, to find at http://www.jewishgen.org/databases/holocaust/ with key word “Verderber”):

Register of Jewish Survivors I
Surviving Jews in Poland – the Krakow Committee List:
  • Runia Verderber, born 1929, former residence at Krakow (15, page 144).
  • Pesia Verderber, born 1936, former residence at Krakow (15, page 144).
  • Leon Verderber, born 1917, former residence at Brzesko (15, page 144). There are at least two places named Brzesko in Poland, one of them is situated about 50 kilometres in the east of Krakow.
Surviving Jewish children in Poland:
  • Runia Verderber, 13 years old (16a, page 147). Could be the same Runia Verderber as above.
  • Resia Verderber, 7 years old (16a, page 147). Could be identical with Reisa Verderber or Pesia Verderber above (if we suppose a clerical error).
Register of Jewish Survivors II
  • Ises Verderber, last residence Zabno (page 67). This place exists with the spellings Zabno and Żabno several times in Poland, among them there is a Żabno lying about 50 kilometres in the east of Krakow.
  • Runia Verderber, last residence Krakow (page 67). This could be the same as the Runia Verderber mentioned above.
  • Bronia Verderberg, last residence Krakow (page 67). This seems not to be a Verderber, if it is not a clerical error, because there existed a place named Verderberg in Galicia.

Possibly all the Verderbers from Krakow and its environs, including the murdered Moshe Mordechai Verderber, are related to Ferdynand Verderber.

Also the Polish Jew Bertha Ferderber-Salz survived. She hid her two little daughters at catholic Polish and got them back with difficulties at the end of the war. She wrote a book about this (“And the Sun kept Shining”, New York, Holocaust Library, 1980; see http://www.holocaustmemoirdigest.org/Memoirs/bertha.ferderber.pdf and for a map supplying the book http://www.holocaustmemoirdigest.org/Maps/Hol._Mem._8_Sun_Keeps_pdf.pdf).

Edith Ferderberova, born on 21/8/1912 at Krompachy (Slovakia, westward from Prešov) is mentioned in a list of surviving Czechoslovak women in the hospitals of Bergen-Belsen and Theresienstadt auf (block No. 56) (see http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/Mukachevo/data3.htm).

Another member of the Jewish family branch is the artist Niki Verderber. She was born to Strasbourg (France) and emigrated 1971 to Israel, where she settled down at Jerusalem (see http://www.sdv.fr/judaisme/perso/artistes/niki/niki-v.htm). Her parents survived during the Second World War after information of her family like many Jews from Strasbourg by going underground in Limoges in the “Free France” (from a personal information).

Leo Verderber (1919–2002), a German Jew, who studied the Torah in Switzerland and was deported from Italy to Auschwitz (Oświecim, Poland), was one of the few survivors of this concentration camp. His parents and a sister were killed by the National Socialists; the other sister and a brother had emigrated in time. You get more details in the biography of Leo Verderber.

From the Verderbers of Cologne only the both brothers Israel Moses Verderber and Theodor Verderber survived. Israel Moses emigrated to Palestine just in time, and Theo Markus was saved by a Kindertransport (children transport) to England. You get more details in the article about the Verderbers of Cologne.

From the history

About the origin of the Jewish family branch

As is known yet, the Jewish family members lived until the First World War mostly in the east of Germany and Austria-Hungary. The others had moved to the west just around the year 1900. It seems yet that there no Jewish Verderbers existed in the Gottschee region, also. But it is not impossible because there was a “Judenbrunnen” (Jew’s fountain) in Nesseltal (Koprivnik) what indicates that there also were Jews in the Gottschee (look at the concerning remark in the article about Thomas Verderber).

The search for the origin of the Jewish family branch is got complicated by the fact that there are so few sources. Especially it is totally unclear how long there were Jewish Verderbers in the east. The sources known yet only prove Jewish Verderbers up to the 19th century, and strictly speaking only during its second half.

For example, Jehuda Arie Verderber (Leo Verderber), the progenitor of the Verderbers of Cologne, is said to have come from Wischnitz in Poland. If his birth place is that Wischnitz (Wiśnice) in the district Tost-Gleiwitz in Upper Silesia, then there cannot be found a family named Verderber in the genealogical register of families for 1770–1800 (Source: Genealogical Society of Utah, microfilm number 1573223, see http://www.familysearch.org). But there is unclear to what extend such registers list the Jewish families and also there seems to exist another Wischnitz.

There are two possibilities for the origin of the Jewish family branch:

  1. There is a relation to the non-Jewish branch.

    Then it matters probably of descendants of emigrants from the Gottschee. Because the Gottscheer Verderbers obviously were all catholic and traditionally only children of Jewish mothers are considered as Jews, so a Verderber must have married a Jewish woman. Thereby it irrelevant if he converted Judaism himself of if he accepted the Jewish education of his children. It seems unlikely that this happened before the emancipation of the Jews of the 19th century.

    But we may also think that the Verderbers originally were Jewish und most of them converted to Catholicism. The converts or their greatest part then settled down in the Gottschee. In this case, the surname Verderber could be an abusive name which the Jews had got before their conversion.

    Such conversion were not seldom during the Middle Ages. It is well-known that a lot of converts in Spain (where they were called Marrans) were killed by the inquisition, and much of them flew to South America. And naturally the Jews were persecuted and flew to Holland and the Adriatic coast, for example.

  2. The Jewish branch is not relative to the other Verderbers. Then the Jewish Verderbers got their name otherwise.

    Concerning that there is a theory of Benzion Kaganoff (in “A Dictionary of Jewish Names and their History”, Schocken Books, New York, 1977),  according to that the Jews – when they had to accept “civil” names – had to pay for a nice name and if they did not, they got an insulting name. Among the examples listed by Kaganoff there is also the surname Verderber. But this theory is disputed. (See http://www.jewishgen.org/wconnect/wc.isa?jg~jgsys~archview~73231~Verderber~1992;9.)

Which possibility is the right, that is totally open. None of them can be denied yet.

From the archives and cemeteries

Births

Births at Jewish Verderbers in Krakow (Kraków, Poland) (see http://www.jewishgen.org/jri-pl/jriplweb.htm with key word “Verderber):

Marriages, marriage banns and divorces

Marriage banns and marriages in Krakow (Kraków, Poland) (see http://www.jewishgen.org/jri-pl/jriplweb.htm with key word “Verderber):

1913, Marriage banns, current number 256:
Mojsesz-Mordche Verderber from Wisnicz, son of Salomon Symchowicz (unregistered) and Fradla Verderber.
Laja Otrebska from Konsk, daughter of Chaim-Rachmil Konsk and Brandla Konsk. (Both likely married and were murdered in Majdanek or Treblinka, see above.)
1920, Marriage banns, current number 283:
Sygmund Silbermann from Jordanów, son of Heinrich Silbermann and Lenia Lilenthal.
Zofia Kronfeld from Kraków, daughter of Ignacy Kronfeld and Roza Ferderber.
1921, Marriage banns, current number 463:
Pinkas Käfer from Brzesko, son of Tobiasz Käfer and Sara-Itla Ferderber.
Berta Feil from Kraków, daughter of Mojzesz-Jozua Feil and Gitla-Lieba Wachtel.
1921, Marriage, current number 134 (to the marriage banns above):
Pinkas Käfer from Brzesko, son of Tobias-Gutman Käfer and Sara-Itla Ferderber.
Berta Feil from Kraków, daughter of Mojzesz-Jojna Feil and Gittla-Lieba Wachtel.
1924, Marriage, current number 267:
Benjamin Kaffer from Brzesko, son of Tobiasz-Guttmann Kaffer and Sara-Itla Verderber. (Obviously a brother of Pinkas Käfer at the marriage above.)
Bronislawa Liebling from Kraków, daughter of Wiktor Bronislawa and Temerla Buchenholz.
1929, Marriage, current number 115:
Mojzesz-Kalman Verderber from Brzesko, son of Abraham-Abe Verderber and Lieba v Marjema Waksfätter.
Dobre-Beile Frost from Kolbuszowa, daughter of Izrael-Hersch Frost and Reizla-Rachela Letzterer.

Deaths and cemeteries

Deaths of Jewish Verderbers 1810–54 and 1869–89 in Krakow (Kraków, Poland) (see http://www.jewishgen.org/jri-pl/jriplweb.htm with key word “Verderber):

Deaths of Jewish Verderbers 1808–47 and 1856–76 in Tarnow (Tarnów), province Krakow (Kraków, Poland) (see http://www.jewishgen.org/jri-pl/jriplweb.htm with key word “Verderber):

In the new Jewish cemetery of the Slovak town Košice which was used since 1889, there are buried the following persons, after the cemetery books of 1889-2000 (see http://147.232.145.11/history/zidovsky/jew_vx.htm or http://147.232.145.11/history/zidovsky/jew_fx.htm, respectively):

In the liberal Jewish cemetery of the Slovak town Prešov (lying northward from Košice and named Eperjes in Hungarian language) are buried after the cemetery records (see http://www.jewishgen.org/infofiles/presov-n.txt):

In the Jewish-orthodox cemetery of the Slovak town Prešov are also buried after the cemetery records (see http://www.jewishgen.org/infofiles/presov-o.txt):

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