Gertrud Blank

Gertrud ("Trude") Sara Blank was born on 15.2.1892 in Hannover Germany and died in 1981 in Tel Aviv. She was the daughter of Sophie and Ely Blank, a merchant and manufacturer. Gertrud grew up with her aunt Emilie Levy, who probably died in 1911. One of her many siblings was Paula Blank, with whom she later lived in Tel Aviv.

Gertrud attended the Soziale Frauenschule in Berlin-Schöneberg between 1913 and 1914, after which she worked as a social worker from 1915 to 1933 in the Wohlfahrtsamt or welfare office of Berlin-Charlottenburg, where she dealt with legal protection for minors, training of interns, and welfare work with needy minors and with psychotics.

In 1932, she became a member of a Zionist organization. She was dismissed from her position in 1933 because she was Jewish, after which she worked as a social worker at the Zentralwohlfahrtsstelle der Juden in Deutschland (ZWST), the Central Office for German Jewish Welfare Berlin. In 1934, she directed the Wohlfahrtsamt or welfare office of the Jewish community in Magdeburg. She also played a prominent role in the Jüdische Winterhilfe of Berlin, an organization providing relief to Jews in the winter between 1934 and 1939.

Gertrud immigrated to Palestine in 1939, becoming a member of the Histadrut labor federation and Hitachduth Olei Germania, the Union of German Immigrants. There, she continued her social work, serving as a caregiver in a women’s social aid society from 1942 to 1943. From 1944 to 1948, she worked in the Ministry of Welfare, where one of her responsibilities was providing support for evacuees from Cyprus. From 1945, she also served as a senior caretaker providing social assistance for former soldiers. She continued working as a social worker in the Department of Child Social Services of the Ministry of Welfare from 1948 to 1957. Finally, in 1957, she became a volunteer member of the Association of Former Officers and Employees of Jewish Communities in Germany.

Authors: Ayana Halpern, Dayana Lau