Julius Schaumberg

"If you marry someone who is not Jewish, if you don't raise your children to be Jewish, then Hitler has won."

Name at birth

Werner Julius Schaumberg

Date of birth

05/11/1923

Where were you born?

Schweinzburg, Germany

Where did you grow up?

Schweinzburg, Germany

Name of father, occupation

Solly, Cattle buyer

Maiden name of mother, occupation

Flora Rothschild, Homemaker

Immediate family (names, birth order)

Parents, Julius, Frieda, Friedrich Lawrence

How many in entire extended family?

Medium extended family

Who survived the Holocaust?

Only Julius of the whole community

Julius was born in Schweinsberg, Germany in 1923. This was a small town of approximately six hundred and with only five or six Jewish families.

Julius had one brother, Siegfried, and one sister, Hilde, and his father was a cattleman who owned his own business. His mother, Flora (Schirling) was born in a small town about six kilometers away. When he finished school, he became a baker.

They were Orthodox Jews who went to a small shul, laid tefillin every morning and had minyans on Saturday.

There were no problems until Kristallnacht, when his bakery was set on fire. His father was sent to Dachau in 1938, but was released four weeks later because he was a wounded soldier in World War I.

In September, 1939, Julius went to Neuendorf, a work camp in an attempt to try to get to Israel. He was there for one year. He worked in a coal mine and hauled trees until 1943 when he was sent to Berlin.

He went from Berlin to Buna which was affiliated with Auschwitz, working with rubber and synthetic gas.

He was in an arbeitslager ghetto once while logging. His family was sent to Treblinka where they died.

Julius was a cattleman from Berlin to Buna, reaching there in 1943.

In January, 1945, he was marched to Gleiwitz and then reached Dora. He worked a twelve hour shift, mostly underground where there was neither water, electricity, nor much food–only one potato and black water daily.

At the end of the war, the factory closed and he was shipped by train to Bergen-Belsen. He jumped the train and stayed in the woods where he stole a German uniform. When the Americans took him as a prisoner, he had to convince them that he was a runaway Jew and not a German soldier. They saw the numbers on his arm, but that didn’t do the trick. They quizzed him on Jewish tradition and, finally, believed him and sent him home with a driver, first giving him food and clothes.

On May 1, 1945, he went to his original home, but none of his family was there and there were strangers living on his family property. He threw them out, moved in and went into the meat business.

He married on June 18, 1946, in Germany to a survivor of the Lodz Ghetto and Bergen Belsen, Rosa Weintraub.

He has two sons, Joel and Frederick and came to the U.S. in 1949, when his uncle in Massachusetts sent him papers.

Name of Concentration / Labor Camp(s)

Auschwitz Birkenau

What DP Camp were you after the war?

Yes

Where did you go after being liberated?

He went back to Schweinzburg. His grandfather had been a cantor in Schweinzburg; his father took the Torah from the Schweinzburg Shul (Synagogue) and buried the Torah in the back with instructions to a sympathetic non-Jewish friend to give the Torah to anyone coming back after the war asking for the Torah. Julius came back for it. When they came to Detroit, they came with their son Joel, 2 ½ years old. They were allowed one parcel which was the Schweinzburg Torah. They were sponsored by a distant cousin who lived in Springfield, Massachusetts. From there they went to Oklahoma City for work. Rosa had two sisters; the youngest sister had been sponsored by a family in Topeka who owned a shoe factory, the Poses. They were bought out by Payless Shoes. They came to Detroit, his wife Rosa had two siblings, Franka Charlupski and Mala Dorfman. All three sisters had three sons and named them after their father, Joel Weintraub. Larry Wayne (Weintraub), Rosa’s first cousin, was getting married in Detroit. Only one family could afford to come, Mala and Henry saw work opportunity in Detroit and so all three families came.

When did you come to the United States?

1950

Where did you settle?

Detroit, Michigan Joined Gemilut Hasodim Synagogue which merged with Beth Abraham, which later merged with now Beth Ahm. They built a new Shul (Synagogue) which had a major fire. Watching the news, Julius turned white, the synagogue burned to the ground except for the brick wall that held the Torahs. The Schweinzburg Torah had smoke damage but survived.

Occupation after the war

Auto factory and then in a bakery, eventually owned three bakeries. Then joined the Frederick Packing Company, after he hurt his back at the bakery. He went in business with other two brothers in law, Henry Dorfman and Allan Charlupski. He was in charge of shipping and trucking.

When and where were you married?

June 18,1946 in Marburg, Germany

Spouse

Rosa Weintraub, Rosa and her older sister Franka were liberated at Bergen-Belsen and later lived in Bergen Belsen as it became a DP camp afterwards, She had heard about Marburg was interested in possibly moving there. Her sister Franka had hurt her leg, it was infected and she couldn’t walk. Franka said to Rosa, go without me. There was an Oneg Shabbat, a Sabbath get-together, Rosa didn’t know anyone there, was by herself. She noticed Julius across the room, he had thick red hair and had whole bunch of girls around him. He goes up to her and asked about her. She told him why she was there and not her sister. He found her a place to live. She went back to Bergen-Belsen. Rosa and Franka went to Marburg to live., Homemaker, in the Lodz ghetto she worked in a textile plant

Children

Joel Pinchas, dentist; Frederick Lawrence, gastroenterologist

What do you think helped you to survive?

His strength and his ability to work.

What message would you like to leave for future generations?

If you marry someone who is not Jewish, if you don't raise your children to be Jewish, then Hitler has won.