Our ancestors lived in western Kurland, in the area of Pilten, which had a somewhat separate position, since it was subject to the Danish prince Magnus. But when he died in 1583, the Pilten area became part of Poland along with the rest of Kurland. A whole set of small cities belonged to the Pilten area. Aside from Pilten, Goldingen, Hasenpot, Libau, Polangen, and so forth. The Jews thrived in the Pilten area thanks to the privilege of a much freer life. In 1570 they already had "Burgerrechte" [citizen's rights], some already owned land. In 1693 King Stanislaus the fourth gave the Jews of the Pilten area citizen rights and the right to trade, manufacture, and farm. They retained these rights until the incorporation of Kurland into Russia. The other parts of Kurland had very undesirable conditions for the Jews, especially the cities, which would not tolerate Jews. But the landed nobility supported the Jews. The latter lived on the estates and in the villages, and were useful to the barons as retailers, negotiators, lease holders of the distillery, brewery, dairy, and as sellers of products.
Regulations to remove the Jews from the country were instituted often, but were not enforced due to the resistance of the nobility. After the unification with Russia efforts to remove the Jews from Kurland were often in progress, since Kurland did not belong to the settlement [rayon] (repma ocrogcimu {Russian?}) , that is, a region where Jews were allowed to live in cities. Finally it was ordered that the Jews who could prove to have lived in the country before 1799 would be allowed to stay. So we stayed in the country. Our family was distributed throughout the Pilten area in the estates of the barons such as Baer, Ropp, Osten-Laken, Vietiunhof, etc. They were dairy and wood retailers, but predominantly, distillers [Schnappsbrenner] and brewers [bierbrauer], as indicated by the family names Brenner, Bernitz, Brenson. To the extent that they were not preoccupied with their work and trade, they were orthodox, that is, Thorah-loyal Jews, who lived entirely in the old life rhythms. There were no mixed marriages, and anyone who deviated from the belief of the father was expelled from the family and considered dead. This was the case on occasion, as shown by the existence of a Greek orthodox family [tepuzendepvo Gerzenberg] (no H in Russian) which was also included in the Pilten area. I had a school mate, Konstantin Gerzenberg, blond and blue eyed. His father was a small Russian bureaucrat, with many children. These Gerzenbergs knew nothing of their origin, but are likely to have had converted ancestors of our family as their own ancestors. There also was an evangelical line of Herzenbergs in Petersburg, but nothing is now known of them.
However, during my childhood, those who were counted as family Herzenberg were pure Jewish. I knew no converted Herzenbergs, but there was a converted "frau" [wife, woman?]. The cousin of my mother, Rosa Herzberg, the daughter of great-aunt Balkan Herzberg (born Herzenberg) had married the baron Lowenstein of Kokenhusen. I still knew this baroness personally. No one in the Herzenberg family has so far shown themselves to be outstanding in any field. There were no notable learned people, no great successes in money or industry, or anything else. We were good, decent average people. We therefore had no family name. One was called by ones name, and ones fathers name, and at most a place name was added. Then family names were introduced on a compulsory basis, and we got [chose, were assigned?] the name Herzenberg. In Jewish names "herz" [heart] is synonymous with "hirsch" [deer]. So our name should actually be Hirschenberg [deer mountain]. Probably the ancestor at the time of the naming, had a name such as my grandfather Naphtali, which corresponds to the ancestral symbol of the deer. But the clerk must have written Herz for unknown reasons, and so it stayed. Herzenberg is a very rare name in the German language. I was in Hamburg for a very long time, and was the only Herzenberg in the address record out of a million people, and my brother Erich was the only Herzenberg among the 3 million of Berlin. But all cities of Kurland were full of Herzenbergs. Even during my father's life time we could not find everyone's place in the family tree. [24]
[25] Of the generation of my great-grandparents, I saw only one of them, and only once. She was my great-grandmother, wife of Jossel-Lemchen Herzenberg in Pilten, the mother of my grandmother Gutta. I guess I was about six years old at the time. She was then a very old, shriveled little woman, ill and confined to bed. The memory is quite clouded.
Of my grandparents I knew three: grandmother Gutta in Pilten, the mother of my late mother, and the parents of my late father in Goldingen. Grandfather Gerson (Gustav) Gerson in Pilten must have died before my remembering assets got established. But I knew a whole set of the siblings of my grandparents. The brothers of grandfather: Israel in Windau, and Abraham in Mitau; the sister of grandmother Agnes (Nese) married to a Goldingen in Libau; the brothers of my grandmother Gutta: Fanny, Roche, and Therese (4-5); and the brothers of my grandmother Gutta: Jacob and Laser Herzenberg in Goldingen. This was the case because my mother died when I was about a year and a half old. My father did not marry again for six years. In the meantime he traveled to visit aunts and uncles during holidays, and took me along. Also after I got older, my father insisted that I visit the relatives. It was either by ship to Windau, and from there by "axe" [axle, wheeled vehicle] over Pilten, Goldingen,, Hasenpoth, back to Libau; or direct by "axe" to the home towns of our relatives. All these trips are quite unclear in my memory due to the temporal distance; but I do know that I was received everywhere with open arms, that all remembered my late mother with tears in their eyes, that I was thoroughly spoiled. I expect that they were glad when my father left with me again, since I was probably a spoiled and badly behaved child, but it was overlooked out of love for my late mother and her tragic fate.
In the meantime the family had expanded further. Among the most abundant descendants, during the state takeover of the distilleries, or through prohibitions against Jews being engaged in these activities, more and more Herzenbergs came to the cities. No one in my grandparents generation had the benefit of a middle class school education. The education of the men was mostly that they attended the "cheder", (the Jewish elementary school) where they learned the elements of Jewish faith traditions, payers, bible, and "shulchanoruch" [?], as well as basic knowledge of the german language and primitive arithmetic. After Bar-mitzva (age 13) they began an apprenticeship in business, [geshaefte] to be trained as practical merchants [kaufleute]. Some became independent business owners, others remained as employees, sometimes becoming partners, in their apprenticeship location for the rest of their lives.
At that time in the middle of the nineteenth century it was not difficult
to become independent. Since, as stated earlier, most of the family were
good, honest, diligent and able people, having no outstanding characteristics
to make them noteworthy, so they did not inspire envy or grudges. Somehow
they managed to isolate themselves from the community, which made it easy
for them to get by [durchzukommen], and most reached a moderate prosperity,
and lived their lives as leisurely, average middle class citizens [burger].
Only a few left Kurland, such as great uncles Edward and Leopold, who went
to Moscow. In those days those were great distances. The integrity of the
family in Kurland loosened, and eventually was lost, so I no longer know
the details of the family branches that emigrated. The children of these
great uncles assimilated themselves, became real Muscovites, some converted,
no doubt some mixed marriages with Russians occurred. At any rate, there
has been no contact with them for several decades. [29]
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