Arthur and Berta Goldmeier

Arthur Goldmeier was born on 17 April 1879 in Memmelsdorf near Ebern, the son of the cattle dealer Leopold Goldmeier and his wife Therese, née Kahn. He had three sisters and eight brothers, including his twin brother Manfred. His brother Julius was terminally ill with leukaemia and asked Arthur to care for his wife Berta and their two children Ilse and Julchen shortly before his death in May 1905. Bertha, born in Limburg in 1876, agreed to marry Arthur on 16 October 1907, who adopted the two girls as his children. Their son Ludwig was born in Lichtenfels on 16 July 1908.

Arthur and Manfred moved to Bamberger Straße 46 ½ in Lichtenfels in July 1906. In 1908, Arthur Goldmeier was entered in the commercial register as a cattle dealer. In September 1914, Arthur Goldmeier was drafted and deployed to the Western Front. He took part in battles at Beaupres, St Quentin and Arras and was wounded there. He was awarded the Iron Cross second class. 

Photo: The Goldmeiers' house at Bamberger St. 46 ½ (photo from 2018)

After the war, the brothers temporarily acquired a majority shareholding in the Lichtenfels glue factory, were active in the property and livestock trade, opened a commission business with a Coburg partner in 1927 and acquired a textile shop at Unteres Tor, which Manfred's daughter Florett ran with her husband Max Nass.

Photo: On the left the textile shop of the Goldmeiers ("...meier" can still be read)

The global economic crisis from 1930 onwards hit the brothers hard, with sales falling by less than half. The anti-Semitic measures of the Nazi rulers also had an effect: the livestock business founded in September 1934 reported a turnover of 202,035 M for 1936 and only 122,818 M for 1937. At the beginning of 1938, the Goldmeier brothers had to give up, and Jews were generally banned from the cattle trade.

There was no more room for them in Germany. Arthur's children emigrated in September and October 1938. Ilse, now married to Liebermann, fled to the USA with her husband, her sister-in-law Julchen Schön, her husband and their two children, as well as her brother Ludwig and his wife Bella, née Bamberger.

Arthur and Berta escaped the November pogroms by hiding with acquaintances in Bamberg. Their escape from Germany took them temporarily to Menton in the south of France until they were able to emigrate to the USA in March 1940.

Berta and Arthur lived nearby with their daughters Ilse and Julia in Guilford, New York. Berta Goldmeier died there on 12 July 1948 and was buried in Beth David Cemetery in Conklin, Broome County, New York. Arthur later remarried, to Gustel (Gusti), whom he met through a German-language newspaper advert, and lived with her until his death. She owned a chicken farm in Vineland, New Jersey, which they both ran (they produced kosher meat for Jewish communities). He died on 20 June 1965 and was buried in the same cemetery as Berta in Conklin.

Photo: Arthur Goldmeier in 1964 with his great-granddaughters and great-grandchildren