Sarah Judelowitz

Sarah, born Sarah Gamper, was one of four children born to a Jewish family in the Baltic port city of Liepaja. Her parents owned a general store there. At the outbreak of World War I, Sarah was studying piano at a conservatory in Russia. During World War I, she remained there to serve as a nurse. She returned to Liepaja, and after marrying Herman Judelowitz in 1920, settled there.

1933-39: Sarah and Herman operated a shoe store in the front of their small shoe workshop. By 1935 they had three daughters, Fanny, Jenny and Liebele. Sarah and Herman were Zionists and they often helped collect money for Jewish settlers to buy land in Palestine.

1940-43: In June 1941 the Germans reached Latvia and occupied Liepaja. That July, Herman was murdered by the Germans in a nearby village. For two years, Sarah and her daughters managed to avoid deportation because Fanny had protected status as a nurse. But in October 1943 they were deported to Kaiserwald, near Riga. On arriving, the deportees were divided--those able to work on one side, the infirm and the young on the other. Eight-year-old Liebele was sent with the young. Sarah would not abandon Liebele and followed.

Sarah and Liebele were never heard from again.