Ludwig Zebrak

Ludwig Arie (Arieh) Zebrak, third oldest son of Josef Zebrak from his first marriage to Rachel, née Karlewitz, was born on March 4, 1908 in Kaluszyn, Poland.

He first attended elementary school in Kaluszyn and in 1916 was listed on his father's Augsburg registration form as living with his mother in Warsaw. Since 1918 he was registered in Augsburg, Mendelssohnstr.1. In 1922 his Bar Mitzvah was noted in the Augsburg Jewish Civil Register (No. 4).

According to information given by himself, he attended elementary school in Augsburg/Oberhausen until 1923. From 1923 to 1927 he then attended an advanced training school in Augsburg. He spent three years as an apprentice iron turner, simultaneously attended the trade school in Augsburg and received his journeyman's certificate as an iron turner in February 1926. He then worked as an iron turner at MAN and at the Burger & Schmidt company until 1931. From October 1926 to February 1927, he attended evening courses in technical drawing for mechanical engineering. In 1931/1932 he was in America on a visit to relatives. After his return, he worked again as an iron turner for various companies.

In 1933 he was arrested because of his association with KPD activists, was first put in the Katzenstadel prison in Augsburg, and was interned in the Dachau concentration camp from summer 1933 to June 25, 1935. After that he was in police custody for one month because of his contact with KPD activists. In July 1935 he was released and expelled from the country.

As a convinced communist, he wanted to leave for the SU. He did not succeed and so he left for Palestine. There he worked as a casual laborer as iron turner until 1941, and from 1941 as a permanent worker in the Palalum aluminum goods factory in Ramat-Gan, where he became a foreman. In Palestine he had contacts with the Communist Party and worked for them in a hidden poster printing shop in Tel Aviv. He was betrayed to the British, arrested and tortured.

His place of residence was Tel-Aviv, Nachmani Str. 48 or 61, where he lived with his wife Chana Zebrak, née Neumann, and their three children Sara Zebrak (b. November 1, 1939 in Tel-Aviv, teacher), Josef Zebrak (b. March 1944 in Tel-Aviv) and Rachel Zebrak (b. December 1947). He died in Tel-Aviv on November 22, 1981.

I received no reply to a letter sent to the latter address in Tel Aviv.

In December 2019, Mr. Assaf Levitin, son of Rachel Zebrak and grandson of Ludwig Zebrak, found the trace leading to Augsburg while researching his family history.

Claudia Huber – translated by Wolfgang Poeppel