Taibe Goldberg

TAIBE GOLDBERG Taibe Krakanovsky Goldberg, 95, passed away peacefully in her home on Friday, December 29, surrounded by her close friends and family. She was a beloved wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother – and one of the last remaining Holocaust survivors in Laredo. Taibe was born in Königsberg, Germany in 1922 as the middle child of three siblings and soon moved to Lithuania. As a teenager, Taibe and her family were forced into the Kovno Ghetto, where she witnessed her brother get shot by a Nazi simply because he did not salute. This tragic event transformed the young girl into a survivor. Taibe quickly learned how to escape the Ghetto and get food by trading her family’s possessions. She was later transported by train with her family to the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland, where she was separated from her mother and sister. She eventually escaped the camp and was admitted to a Red Cross hospital, where she remained until the war ended on March 10, 1945 – a date of liberation which she celebrated for the rest of her life. Upon returning to Lithuania after the war, Taibe found no surviving family but did reconnect with her soon-to-be husband, Lazar Goldberg. Taibe and Lazar spent two years together at a refugee camp in Santa Maria di Leuca, Italy where they married. The couple later emigrated to the United States and settled in Laredo, Texas where Lazar had three brothers, Nathan, Samuel, and Raul Goldberg. The two began their careers in Laredo as peddlers, and once they had saved enough by selling items door-to-door, they opened their first retail shop, La Garantia, downtown in the early 1950s – creating a thriving business that ultimately supported dozens of employees. Both Taibe and Lazar stood as pillars of Laredo’s local and Jewish communities. Taibe had two daughters, Elida Goldberg Katzman and Debbie Goldberg. She is also survived by 5 grandchildren (John, Alex, Tony, Adam, and Jacob), 6 great-grandchildren (Lindsay, Jonah, Cameron, Max, Evan, and Adelaide), and her younger sister, Yentale Shapiro. Most likely because of the atrocities they had witnessed during the war, Taibe and Lazar understood the power of family. Despite having been subjected to constant terror, pain, and personal loss throughout her life, Taibe responded not with bitterness and defeat, but rather by building a new, more beautiful life – one filled with love, support, strength, humanity, resilience, and honor. A consistent pattern of selfless love is what defined the Goldbergs' lives, and Taibe was the shepherd that kept our family, her flock, operating at the highest of levels. Her life was an inspirational example to all she met, and she will be missed by all who loved her. Special thanks to her loving and gracious caretakers, Juanita Sosa, Nancy Pinales, and Yolanda Patiño. Thank you, too, to Julio Mendez and her wonderful and caring doctors, Dr. Dennis Cantu and Dr. Robert Hudson. A graveside funeral service will be held at the Laredo Jewish Cemetery on Sunday, December 31 at 12:00pm. If you would like to sign the guestbook or send private condolences, you may do so at www.hillsidefuneral.com Arrangements are under the direction of Hillside Funeral Home, 310 Hillside Road.