Also this year I selected a photo from my collection for the Shoah memorial day. It shows Hedwig Beller with her daughter Gusty in Neu Sandez (Nowy Sacz) in 1941, apparently shortly before the ghetto was sealed off. Only a short time after this last photo was taken, both were murdered, at the latest when the ghetto was "liquidated" in August 1942.
Hedwig Beller was born as Chaja Brand in Dabrowa in 1879. She married Leo (Leib) Beller (1881-1930) in 1914. The couple initially lived in Rzeszow where the children Hersch (Hermann, 1908-1911), Perl "Pepi" (1910-1986), Gitla Ryfka "Gusty" (1912-1942, murdered) and Abraham Mortko (Markus, 1913-1942 , death on the run) were born. On July 1, 1914, the family came to Altenburg. Son Luser (Ludwig, 1916-2007) was born here. The family lived quite secluded. After Leo Beller died following complications during a surgical procedure, Hedwig Beller fed the family alone. In 1931, after her marriage, daughter Perl moved to Frankfurt/Main and Abraham Mortko and Luser Beller to Leipzig. Hedwig and Gusty Beller stayed in Altenburg until 1935 and then moved to Leipzig. While Perl Beller emigrated to Brazil with her husband and child in 1932, the other family members stayed in Germany. Luser was a commercial artist at the Ury department store and Abraham Mortko Beller was a teacher at the Jewish elementary school. During the “Polenaktion" the family members were expelled to Poland on October 28, 1938. The
Bellers initially found shelter in Kraków, but the two Beller men fled east on foot after the German invasion of Poland. After a stopover in Lemberg with friends from Altenburg, the Goldbergs, they continued their escape eastwards. Abraham Mortko Beller died in 1942 as a result of sunstroke in Kokand (Uzbekistan). Luser Beller stayed there and survived World War II. Hedwig and Gusty Beller were expelled from Kraków in September 1940 and deported to Neu Sandez where a ghetto was set up in 1941. The Bellers kept in touch with each other because they were hoping for exit papers from Brazil. They also stayed in regular contact with other Jewish families from Altenburg, as surviving letters and postcards show. But the hope for exit papers was not to be fulfilled. Hedwig and Gusty Beller fell victim to the Shoah.
Through surviving correspondence, we now have an insight into everyday life, at least into the part that went through the censorship. When Gusty Beller wrote in a letter to her brother Luser on May 16, 1941: "We are healthy so far, but I have to keep tightening my clothes", the 
hunger in the "Jewish residential area" is hidden behind it. Probably Gusty Beller, who was a gifted seamstress, could still earn a little money for living expenses. She wrote: "I've acquired a small clientele now and they're all happy. My specialty (are) coats and costumes, but unfortunately (is) little paid, everything (are) poor whelps”. And later: "I had reworked my dear mother's coat, it turned out very chic and advertised me everywhere. I have work at the moment, but very little of it. We often get mail and parcels from Altenburg, old, loyal friends. How gladly would we have sent you clothes, because we can imagine how badly you need them. But unfortunately we are always bare". But Gusty Beller also tells her brothers about problems with lessors, problems in obtaining a visa or family matters. In a letter dated February 24, 1941, she wrote: "If we meet again, there will be a lot to tell". It shouldn't come to that. Like millions of other Jews, Hedwig and Gusty Beller fell victim to Nazi terror.
In 2015, in the presence of Luser Beller’s two daughters, “stumbling blocks” were laid at the Bellers’ place of residence in Altenburg, the house at Schmöllnsche Straße 6, in memory of the family.