Julie Auguste (Grunert) Dienstag (1855–1887)

Born in Schröda (Środa Wielkopolska), Province of Posen, Prussia
Died in Görlitz, Silesia, Prussia

Julie Auguste Grunert was born in 1855 in Schröda (Środa Wielkopolska), in the Prussian Province of Posen. In 1870, she married Simon Scheffel (Sheftel) Dienstag (1852–1917), a merchant from Schrimm (Śrem), with whom she later settled in Görlitz. Like many Jewish families from the Posen region, the couple moved westward after the mid-19th-century lifting of residence restrictions, joining the growing Jewish community of Görlitz — a city that had only recently reopened to Jewish settlement after nearly 450 years of exclusion.

Julie and Simon were among the families who helped reestablish Jewish communal life in the city during this period of renewal. Together, they had several children: Willy (1881–1957), who later emigrated to the United States; Martin (1877–1943) and Jacques (1878–1942), both of whom perished in Auschwitz; and Leonhard (1884–1942), who died in the Warsaw Ghetto.

In 1887, while giving birth to a daughter, Auguste, Julie died at the age of 32. At the time, she and Simon lived at Mittelstraße 19 in Görlitz, where Simon worked as a merchant.Her death, and the brief life of her newborn child, are recorded together in the Görlitz Jewish burial register — a poignant reminder of the fragility of life in the 19th century.

Julie and her infant daughter were laid to rest together in the Görlitz Jewish Cemetery, among several generations of related families — the Dienstag, Schwalbe, Krzywynos, and Schindler families — whose graves collectively trace the rebirth and eventual destruction of Görlitz’s Jewish community.

© Lauren Leiderman