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Explanatory note written by Rabbi Dr Benjamin Gottshall
[nb-NO]Object number[nb-NO]M2010/111:003
[nb-NO]Title[nb-NO]Explanatory note written by Rabbi Dr Benjamin Gottshall
[nb-NO]Description[nb-NO]Note, handwritten on a small piece of paper, written by Rabbi Dr Benjamin Gottshall (1907-1978). "My belt from Schwarzheide Concentration Camp". It accompanied the belt, object number M2010/111:002.
Rabbi Dr Benjamin Béla Vojtech Gottshall was born in Szeged, Hungary in 1907, the eldest of five children of Rabbi Samuel Gottschall and Jenni Eva, née Schayer (Scheuer). He studied at the Budapest and Breslau Seminaries, completing his rabbinical diploma in 1936. He was posted as rabbi to Louny, Czechoslovakia in 1937 where he married Margareta (Greta) Gläsner on 1 September 1938.
He ministered there until 1942 when the entire Jewish community of Louny was sent to Theresienstadt. He worked in the morgue and secretly conducted religious services on shabbat and festivals. For this ‘offence’, on 18 December 1943 he and his wife were transported to Auschwitz, where he continued to minister to the inmates. He conducted services for the dead, organised Seders for Passover, making matzo with flour smuggled from the kitchen. He was put to work carrying boulders from the train station to rebuild the main road.
While in Auschwitz, he traded his bread ration for a prayer book. As it did not have all the prayers and psalms, he traded another ration for a more complete book, stating, "Naturally I was extremely interested to get this prayer book, again for bread, and today I still continue to pray from it daily. Its pages are frayed, but to me it is my great treasure…Not that I would not have known the prayers by heart, but somehow, the printed prayers inspired my heart and soul much deeper, and even the explosion of a bomb would not take away my sincere belief and trust in Almighty’s help.”
On 1 June 1944 he was sent with 999 others as slave labourers to a synthetic petrol plant at Schwarzheide, near Dresden, where he continued his forbidden ministry. His wife was moved to Bergen-Belsen where she died. He was liberated in May 1945, suffering from tuberculosis. After liberation, Gottshall returned to Louny to find that his entire community had been destroyed. After recuperating, he moved to Prague, becoming rabbi to the surviving Jews in Prague. On 24 November 1946 he married Jana Prager, a survivor of Auschwitz and daughter of a rabbi from Topol'čany, whose entire family had also been murdered in the Holocaust. Their daughter was born in 1948 and in July 1949 they escaped communist Czechoslovakia, arriving in Sydney on 6 September 1949, on the Surriento, with one child and another soon to be born. As he had no knowledge of English when he arrived, Rabbi Gottshall worked in a factory making cornflake boxes. B’nai B’rith gave him a small stipend so that he could concentrate on learning English. He was subsequently appointed as spiritual leader, first to the Newcastle Hebrew Congregation, then to the Wellington Hebrew Congregation in New Zealand, then as chief rabbi of Queensland (1963-67). Returning to Sydney in 1967 he served at Maroubra Synagogue until retiring due to illness in 1973. He died in April 1978. Both he and his wife were active in communal and civic endeavours during all his ministries. His decision to serve small congregations strengthened those communities.
Rabbi Dr Benjamin Béla Vojtech Gottshall was born in Szeged, Hungary in 1907, the eldest of five children of Rabbi Samuel Gottschall and Jenni Eva, née Schayer (Scheuer). He studied at the Budapest and Breslau Seminaries, completing his rabbinical diploma in 1936. He was posted as rabbi to Louny, Czechoslovakia in 1937 where he married Margareta (Greta) Gläsner on 1 September 1938.
He ministered there until 1942 when the entire Jewish community of Louny was sent to Theresienstadt. He worked in the morgue and secretly conducted religious services on shabbat and festivals. For this ‘offence’, on 18 December 1943 he and his wife were transported to Auschwitz, where he continued to minister to the inmates. He conducted services for the dead, organised Seders for Passover, making matzo with flour smuggled from the kitchen. He was put to work carrying boulders from the train station to rebuild the main road.
While in Auschwitz, he traded his bread ration for a prayer book. As it did not have all the prayers and psalms, he traded another ration for a more complete book, stating, "Naturally I was extremely interested to get this prayer book, again for bread, and today I still continue to pray from it daily. Its pages are frayed, but to me it is my great treasure…Not that I would not have known the prayers by heart, but somehow, the printed prayers inspired my heart and soul much deeper, and even the explosion of a bomb would not take away my sincere belief and trust in Almighty’s help.”
On 1 June 1944 he was sent with 999 others as slave labourers to a synthetic petrol plant at Schwarzheide, near Dresden, where he continued his forbidden ministry. His wife was moved to Bergen-Belsen where she died. He was liberated in May 1945, suffering from tuberculosis. After liberation, Gottshall returned to Louny to find that his entire community had been destroyed. After recuperating, he moved to Prague, becoming rabbi to the surviving Jews in Prague. On 24 November 1946 he married Jana Prager, a survivor of Auschwitz and daughter of a rabbi from Topol'čany, whose entire family had also been murdered in the Holocaust. Their daughter was born in 1948 and in July 1949 they escaped communist Czechoslovakia, arriving in Sydney on 6 September 1949, on the Surriento, with one child and another soon to be born. As he had no knowledge of English when he arrived, Rabbi Gottshall worked in a factory making cornflake boxes. B’nai B’rith gave him a small stipend so that he could concentrate on learning English. He was subsequently appointed as spiritual leader, first to the Newcastle Hebrew Congregation, then to the Wellington Hebrew Congregation in New Zealand, then as chief rabbi of Queensland (1963-67). Returning to Sydney in 1967 he served at Maroubra Synagogue until retiring due to illness in 1973. He died in April 1978. Both he and his wife were active in communal and civic endeavours during all his ministries. His decision to serve small congregations strengthened those communities.
[nb-NO]Subject[nb-NO]concentration camp experiences
[nb-NO]Object name[nb-NO]notes
[nb-NO]Material[nb-NO]paper
[nb-NO]Dimensions[nb-NO]
- length: 100.00 mm
width: 127.00 mm
[nb-NO]Credit line[nb-NO]Sydney Jewish Museum Collection, Donated by Mrs Eva Wittenberg and Alex Gottshall