Ernest Goldberger

Ernest Goldberg grew up in Transylvania in the city of Huedin, Romania amongst a Jewish population of about 150 000. Ernest was born to a big and well off family with father Edmund, mother Bertha, two older brothers, Oscar & Tibor, two younger brothers, Bernat & Bernard, and the youngest, their sister, Judy. The family owned a clothing manufacturing business focusing on rainwear.

Ernest remembers peaceful childhood years with the six siblings playing with neighbors, both Jewish and non-Jewish. Life began to change as the Second World War became imminent. Their business could only be run with gentile partnership. Romanians were still friendly towards the Jewish community, with the exception of Goga’s short regime, more so than the Hungarians. As Transylvania, previously under Romanian leadership, was given back to Hungary in 1941, Ernest’s father sold their business and moved the family to Budapest. Not long later, the father and sons were conscripted to labour camps one after the other by their birth year. A considerate commander allowed Ernest’s father, and two of his brothers, Tibor and Bernie, to work in one unit together, and Ernest was able to visit his mother and sister with a special pass. Soon after, they were moved to the Engerau camp and lost contact with the mother and sister.

From Engerau to Mauthyausen to Gunskirchen, they were moved from one concentration camp to another as Russian and American forces closed in with each camp worse than the last. They had to survive with very little food, resorting to bread crumbs, chewed away bones and grass, unhygienic conditions, and dreading sickness. Those that were sick or were the last in the row to march were shot on the spot. Listening to their father’s advice and taking care of each other, Ernest knows he could not have survived had he been alone.

They were liberated as Americans closed in on Gunskirchen. Survival after liberation was also a challenge. Many had perished just from trying to relieve their starvation far too quickly before their stomachs adjusted to food. When they returned to Budapest, they had lost their home to a Nazi officer, but found their mother and sister alive and well. Ernest’s mother and sister were fortunate to survive the ghetto with the aid of a gentile lady who hid them in their house. Ernest’s youngest brother also managed to return from the camp. Ernest’s oldest brother never returned.

In 1949, the family migrated to Canada with the help of their sister who found work as a maid, and eventually, they opened a manufacturing business. Ernest was father to 3 sons with his wife, Barbara, another survivor he met in Toronto. Ernest passed away on February 2nd of 2009 and his full testimony is part of the Canadian Collection of Holocaust survivor testimonies. It is preserved in the USC Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive and accessible through the Ekstein Library.

Ernest Goldberger

It’s all miracles how these things happened. There is no rhyme or reason for it. Who survived, how you survived, it’s just miracles nothing else.