Descendants

Shortly before the outbreak of the 2nd World War in August 1939 their 16-years-old son Joachim emigrated to Palestine. If this was his own decision or if it was the wish of his worried parents, we do not know. But it is sure, that this was a safe way to survive the holocaust. In Palestine he adopted the name Yehoyakim Doron ("Doron" means "gift" in Hebrew). He went to a kibuts, studied hebrew and got married. Together with his wife, he went to kibuts Gan Shmuel, a pretty whealthy kibuts in the center, and became a teacher. Afterwards, he made in the seventies his PhD in Jewish history and became a known lecturer and published two books.

Petra Merkel and Yuval Doron
Petra Merkel and Yuval Doron

In June 2012 Petra Merkel was traveling with a delegation of the German Parliament to Israel. In preparation of this journey she asked the German Embassy in Tel Aviv if they could help to find the descendants of Paula Dienstag. Soon it was clear, that Joachim had died in 1992. But he had left two children. And so a contact was arranged with Yuval Doron, the grandson of Paula Dienstag. He lives with his wife and three children in Tel Aviv. He owns a small company of staffing and recruiting for high tech professionals and he is an artist and photographer.

 

Yuval Doron was deeply moved by the dedication of Petra Merkel. Yuval Doron and Petra Merkel met each other in Tel Aviv in June 2012. By now they try together to reconstruct the life of Paula Dienstag. Yuval Doron sent some pictures of his grandmother. Now we finally have a picture to the name “Paula Dienstag”.

 

In Spring 2013 Yuval Doron will visit Berlin for the first time ever.