Beate Rocker (nicknamed Deta) was born Beate Goldfeld on November 7, 1924 in Vienna, Austria to Israel and Dora Goldfeld. Her father, Israel (1883-1941), owned a sweater factory in Vienna. Her mother, Dora (née Heitner, 1883-1942), was born in Novosolitza, Romania (Novoselytsia, Ukraine). Beate had one brother, Albert (later Albert Goldfield, 1914-2005), who was born on April 26, 1914 in Novosolitza.
Beate left Vienna on a Kindertransport on July 11, 1939 and arrived in Harwich, England. She went to live with a Jewish family, the Hersbergs, in Skegness, a seaside town on the Lincolnshire coast. She worked at her host family’s restaurant and received some letters from her family back home. After the house in Skegness was bombed, she went to live in a women’s hostel in London. Per the Guardianship (Refugee Children) Act of 1944, she was listed as a ward of the Lord Gorell, under the care of the Refugee Children’s Movement, Ltd. In London she worked in a factory spray painting bombs.
After the war, Beate met Otto Rauchbach, also a Jewish refugee from Vienna. They married in 1945, and their daughter Doreen was born in 1947. Their son Steven was born in 1949. Around 1948, they changed their last name from Rauchbach to Rocker. On December 30, 1953, the family immigrated to the United States aboard the SS Ryndam. They settled in Washington Heights in upper Manhattan where Otto worked as a tailor. Both Beate and Otto became naturalized citizens in 1959.
Her father died in Vienna on June 16, 1941. Her mother was deported from Vienna on May 14, 1942 to the Izbica ghetto where she was likely killed.
Beate’s brother Albert went to Torino, Italy in 1936 to study medicine. He went to Bern, Switzerland in 1938 to flee antisemitic laws aimed at Jewish students, but returned in 1939 after his visa renewal was refused. He was arrested shortly after the start of WWII and deported to Notaresco on June 18, 1940. He was transferred to Ferramonti in May 1942 and liberated by the Allies on September 3, 1943. After liberation he went to Florence to continue his medical studies. Albert located Beate after the war and visited her in London in December 1946. In 1948, he got a job as a physician with the IRO and worked in Bagnoli, Bari, and Trani. He married an Italian Jewish woman named Lilliana Mariani (1920-2009) in Florence and the couple, along with their first child, immigrated to the U.S. in April 1952.
Otto Rocker (1919-2007, nicknamed Fred) was born Otto Rauchbach on March 15, 1919 in Vienna, Austria to Hermann and Marie Rauchbach. His father, Hermann Rauchbach (1890-1942), was born on January 16, 1890 in Rădăuți, Romania. His mother, Marie Rauchbach (1893-1942), was born Marie Brandstetter on October 19, 1893 in Vienna. Otto had one younger brother, Kurt (later Curt Rocker, 1921-2008), who was born on May 11, 1921 in Vienna.
Otto was involved with a Zionist movement as a teenager, and went to England before World War II. He was sent to Canada aboard the SS Ettrick on July 3, 1940 as an “alien internee,” but returned to England on October 19, 1941. He worked in London as a tailor. After the war, he met fellow Viennese refugee Beate Goldfeld in 1945 and they married the same year. Their daughter Doreen was born in 1947, and their son Steven in 1949. Around 1948, they changed their last name from Rauchbach to Rocker. On December 30, 1953, the family immigrated to the United States aboard the SS Ryndam. They settled in Washington Heights in upper Manhattan where Otto worked as a tailor. Both Beate and Otto became naturalized citizens in 1959.
Otto’s parents were both deported from Vienna to Maly Trostinec (near Minsk, Belarus) on May 27, 1942 where they were murdered. His younger brother Kurt survived the war in Holland, Germany, and Austria, and lived under the false identity of Gert Furhmann. He immigrated to the United States from Southampton, England aboard the Queen Mary in October 1947.
