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David Goldschild was born on October 13, 1929 in Huszt, Czechoslovakia. His father, Menhardt Meir Goldschild owned a wholesale fruit store, imported citrus fruit and exported apples. David’s mother, Berta Badner Goldschild owned a canned goods store. David was the oldest of three children; Yehuda was born in 1932 and Esther was born in 1940. The family was orthodox. David attended regular high school and later a Jewish high school with Hebrew as main language. In afternoons he studied in a yeshiva. In 1941 Menhardt Goldschild was conscripted into a labor battalion. He returned in the spring of 1944. In April 1944 the Jews of Huszt were forced into a ghetto and after a short time all 12,000 Jews were deported to Auschwitz. Berta Goldschild and her two younger children were killed immediately; David, after surviving numerous selections during the six weeks he was in Birkenau, was sent to Allach, a sub-camp of Dachau, where he worked for the BMW factory. His father was taken to Warsaw to clear the remains of the ghetto and later was sent to Kaufering, another Dachau sub-camp, where he died on January 15, 1945. After the liberation David returned to Huszt only to learn that he and his aunt are the only survivors of the family. He recovered some of the hidden valuables and joined Vera Goldschild, his paternal aunt, near Prague, Czechoslovakia. His uncle by marriage, Josef Hartenbaum (married to Rifka Goldschild, David’s paternal aunt) arranged for David to go to the United States, but David was determined to finish school before immigration and planned to save money for a boarding school in Switzerland. In the spring of 1946 David received a letter from the Jewish Committee in Prague informing him that orphans under the age of 17 could be eligible to go to England. 740 young people applied for this opportunity; 105 were chosen to go and David Goldschild was among them. Jewish Committee of English Jews paid for his room and board while David became an apprentice to a jeweler. He later graduated from London School of Art with a degree in jewelry design. In February 1950 David immigrated to the US, sponsored by his uncle, Josef Hartenbaum. David Goldschild and his wife, Ellen S. Liberman Goldschild currently reside in Florida.
The David Goldschild photograph collection consists of photographs relating to David Goldschild and his extended family in Czechoslovakia; of David Goldschild and other war orphans in London, England relating to the Primrose Club of Jewish Immigrants; and a reunion of members of the same group in New York, circa 1950.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
David Goldschild photograph collection
The David Goldschild collection is arranged in a single series.