Garber family photograph, likely taken in Zehlendorf, Berlin, circa 1946. Magdalene Garber and her husband Jack Goodwin (an African American GI) had a house in Zehlendorf. This photo was most likely taken in their garden.
Standing left to right are Käthe Garber (‘an aunt’ according to the original caption), Magdalene, Joseph Garber, and Helga Naue (future wife of Hans Garber). The man kneeling is Hans Garber (Magdalene's brother). Joseph is wearing Jack Goodwin’s hat (Magdalene's husband).
Magdalene (“Leni”) Garber was born in January, 1919 in Germany. Her parents were Joseph Garber, a Togolese man, and Johanna Maychrzak, a white German woman. Magdalene grew up in Berlin-Neukölln and worked as a performer from an early age. She was part of several ethnographic shows, including a variety of Mohamed ben Ahmed’s Afrika-Schau during the late 1920s through the early 1930s, and the German Africa Show (Deutsche Afrika-Schau) during the Nazi period. After the war, she married Jack Goodwin, who was an African American GI. She moved to the United States with her husband in 1946.
We would like to thank Crown Family Philanthropies, Abe and Ida Cooper Foundation, the Claims Conference, EVZ, and BMF for supporting the ongoing work to create content and resources for the Holocaust Encyclopedia. View the list of donor acknowledgement.
