Renate Berk

Born: Renate (Rebecca) Steinitz
Breslau, Germany
November 6, 1929

Died:
April 12, 2007

Renate Berk had fond memories of her early childhood in Breslau, Germany. Her mother, Elfriede, was an ophthalmologist who ran her practice out of the family’s apartment. Renate was particularly close to her father, Siegbert, with whom she enjoyed hiking and ice skating. He earned a living as a manufacturer of cardboard boxes.

As soon as Adolph Hitler assumed leadership in 1933, Renate’s family began to feel the sting of exclusion. Renate was expelled from a German public school in 1936. She briefly attended a private Jewish school, but after several months her parents chose to withdraw her. Siegbert’s business had been appropriated by the Nazis and he and Elfriede were growing increasingly uneasy. They preferred to keep Renate close by.

Not yet seven years old, Renate was only vaguely aware of the political situation in Germany. But she vividly pictured a day when she and her four-year-old brother, Gunter, were standing on the family’s balcony. Suddenly, Gunter spat down on a group of people below. To his parents’ horror, Gunter’s unintended target was a group of Nazi soldiers. Terrified of retribution Siegbert and Elfriede hastened their plans to leave the country. In December 1936, four months ahead of schedule, the family took a train to Italy, where they boarded a ship bound for South Africa.

Renate’s family was permitted to take only 40 marks (less than $20) with them from Germany. Although restrictive currency regulations impoverished them, they were able to ship several huge crates of belongings to South Africa. Among their belongings was a brand new automobile, the sale of which would provide income during their early days in Cape Town. Departing Germany was painful for Renate, who had to bid farewell to many friends. "I remember with great sadness to this day that I had to leave them," she says. But adjustment to a new life, a new culture and a new language was even more difficult for her and Gunter. Although they spoke no English, the children started school only weeks after they arrived in Cape Town. Everything—from the taste of spicy foods to the sight of black people whom Renate had never seen before—was unfamiliar and a little frightening.

After graduating from high school in 1946, Renate married Morris Berk, who had grown up in Cape Town. They had three children, Jonathan, Alan and Susan. Renate never experienced discrimination as a Jew in South Africa. But—perhaps because her early life had been shaped by persecution—she was particularly sensitive to the injustices perpetrated against the black population there. Unable to abide apartheid, the Berks left South Africa in 1979. Morris was a radiologist so they settled in Houston where members of the medical profession were much in demand. Renate worked for a shipping company, then helped her husband in his medical office.

Parents:
Siegbert Steinitz, survived
Elfriede Brasch Steinitz, survived

Siblings:
Gunter, survived