Heinz Goldstein / Henry Gallant (M / Germany, 1928-2019), Holocaust survivor
Heinz Goldstein / Henry Gallant (M / Germany, 1928-2019), Holocaust survivor
- KEYWORDS : <[[Refugees>]]> <MS St. Louis> <Switzerland>
- MEMOIRS : "Aboard the MS St. Louis and the Ordeal That Followed"
Biography
Henry Gallant was born Heinz Goldstein in Berlin, Germany on October 30, 1928. His parents were Hermann and Rita Goldstein. Henry was an only child, and his father was a chemist who manufactured perfume. Henry’s parents were proud Germans, and Henry’s father had served in World War I. After Kristallnacht, which Henry witnessed, Henry’s parents prepared to emigrate from Germany. They liquidated their assets, bought tickets for the St. Louis, and obtained visas. Along with 933 other Jews, Henry and his parents boarded the St. Louis which was bound for Cuba, hoping to eventually settle in the United States. However, when the ship arrived in Cuba, it was not allowed to dock and was sent back to international waters. The United States also refused to let the passengers enter the country even though most held valid immigration quota numbers in the following years. Eventually the ship returned to Europe, where England, France, Belgium and Holland each took part of the passengers. Tragically, many of the passengers perished in death camps when France, Belgium and Holland were overrun by the Nazis.
Henry and his family went to France, where his father was interned and eventually sent to Aushwitz-[Birkenau]. Henry’s mother remained free and Henry was put in a home for children outside Paris. Henry and his mother managed to escape into Switzerland in 1942 where they stayed until 1947. Henry’s mother lived in a camp for women, which was in an unused resort hotel, and Henry lived first with a Jewish family and then a gentile family. In Switzerland, Henry describes being treated very well and attending a progressive school called Ecole d’Humanite.
At the age of 16, Henry attended hotel school in Switzerland to learn cooking and serving. Upon immigrating to the United States with his mother, Henry got a job at the Greenbrier Hotel in West Virginia and changed his name from ‘Heinrich Goldstein’ to ‘Henry Gallant’ at the suggestion of a friend, who informed him that the Greenbrier was a restricted hotel that did not allow Jews. Henry also experienced antisemitism in the United States during his time in the military. He joined the air force in 1949 and was stationed in Texas and California. Although there weren’t many Jews in the hotel industry, Henry found that his ability to speak French, German, and Swiss-German was an asset in this line of work, which was often run by Europeans.
Henry met his wife, a German gentile who later converted to Judaism, while on vacation in Montreal, Canada. They married in Las Vegas and worked at hotels in Miami, Lake Placid, and New York City. Gallant was a maître d’hotel in the Empire Room, a nightclub at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. When the Empire Room closed in 1975, the Gallant family moved to Atlanta for Henry’s job at the Fairmont Hotel. Henry and his wife, Ilse, later ran a kosher catering company. They have one son, Mark, and a granddaughter. Mark’s wife also converted to Judaism. Gallant feels very lucky to have survived the Holocaust with his mother in Switzerland and to have had a successful career and family upon arrival in the United States.
Henry Gallant passed away on May 28, 2019.
Book : No Reply: A Jewish Child Aboard the MS St. Louis and the Ordeal That Followed
May 13, 1939. The MS St. Louis ocean liner pulls out of Hamburg harbor and begins a long journey across the Atlantic Ocean toward Cuba. On board are more than 900 German Jews fleeing Hitler, including Hermann and Rita Goldstein and their 10-year-old son, Heinz. The passengers hope to stay in Cuba while they wait for visas to enter the United States. However, once the ship arrives in Havana’s harbor, the Cuban government refuses to let the passengers enter. An urgent request goes out to America, seeking permission to dock. But a plea sent all the way up to the White House is ignored. Passengers are told that, without visas, they cannot come into the United States. The ship’s captain has no choice but to turn back to Europe, where many passengers will be delivered into the lethal hands of the Nazis. "NO REPLY: A Jewish Child Aboard the MS St. Louis and the Ordeal That Followed" tells the story of Heinz and his harrowing flight for safety.--Publisher description.
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Henry Gallant, born on October 30, 1928, in Berlin, Germany, describes his family; how life was fairly normal until the 1936 Olympics, at which point Jews were forbidden from going to certain places; his memories of Kristallnacht and the Nuremberg Laws; losing several of his friends once Hitler came to power and antisemitism was institutionalized; his journey on the S.S. St. Louis and being forced to return to Europe; traveling to Switzerland and finding a job in a hotel; being separated from his father, who was sent to the Gurs and Auschwitz camps and never seen again; staying with his mother in a small house in Le Mans, France and then moving to an unoccupied part of Nice, France once the war began; living in the attic of a Gentile home and having a small Bar Mitzvah in 1941; sneaking into Geneva, Switzerland and living with a foster family while his mother stayed in a refugee camp; attending the École d’Humanité in Switzerland; seeing American troops come into Switzerland; immigrating to the United States; and moving around the country working for various hotels.