Golda Gizelle (nee Katz) Baltinester
Hebrew Name: Zehava (Golda) (nee Katz ) Baltinester
Secular Name: Gizelle (Giza) (nee Katz) Baltinester
Parents: Moshe and Esther Roza (nee Haber) Katz
Secular Date of Birth: April 9, 1916
Hebrew Date of Birth: 6 Nissan 5676
Place of Birth: Stanislow, Poland (now the Ukraine)
Secular Date Killed: November 20, 1943
Hebrew Date Killed: 22 Cheshvan, 5704
Burial Place: Moascar, Ismailiya, Egypt
Rank: Aircraftwoman 1st Class Women’s Auxiliary Air Force
Golda, Gizelle Katz (known as Giza to her family), daughter of Moshe and Esther Rosa (nee Haber), was born on the 6th of Nissan 5676 (April 9, 1916) in Stanislow, Poland (now the Ukraine). Golda was the middle child. Her older sister was Fanny and her younger sister was Mary (who passed away when she was fourteen and a half).
Golda’s family was both Zionistic and wealthy. When she was young, Golda’s parents divorced and her mother married a man named Fauker with whom she had a son, Freddy or Efraim. Together with the extended Haber Family, they immigrated to Vienna at the beginning of the 1920’s. There they opened a department store on the main street.
About a decade later, having great foresight, the family purchased a piece of land in the center of British Mandated Palestine, intending to plant groves of fruit there. In April 1934, Golda immigrated to Palestine with her grandparents Yehuda and Mentzia (Mina) Haber. The three of them settled in Jerusalem. Over the years, some of the other more distant family members joined them in Palestine while others chose to immigrate to the U.S. and Argentina.
In November 1934, Zehava Katz (having translated her given name of Golda to Hebrew, as it appears on her marriage certificate) married Moshe Baltinester. The young couple lived in Jerusalem for a while but after eight months, the marriage was over. Golda moved into her Uncle Max Haber’s home in Tel Aviv, on Ben Yehuda Street corner of Frishman. The family lived above their café there. Golda worked as a clerk for a time. In June 1943, Golda enlisted in the Women’s Auxiliary Corps of the British Air Force. On the 22nd of the month of Cheshvan, 5704, (November 20, 1943) Zehava (Golda) Baltinester was killed in an automobile accident near Ismailiya and was buried at the Military Cemetery in Moascar, Ismaelia, Egypt. She was twenty-seven at the time of her death.
Golda’s mother and step-father died while trying to emigrate to Palestine, at the Ustasha Concentration Camp which was run by a Croatian Fascist Organization who collaborated with the Nazis in Jacobo, Yugoslavia, probably during the beginning of 1942. Her sister Fanny managed to immigrate to the U.S. and her younger brother Efraim was sent with the Kindertransport (Children’s Transport) from Austria to England. Thirty years later, he and his wife immigrated to Israel.
פרטי חייה של גולדה כץ בלטינשטר וקורותיה חסרים באתר יזכור של משרד הביטחון.
סיפורה נחקר והושלם בשנת 2017 וגם תמונתה נמצאה, על ידי מתנדבי "לתת פנים לנופלים".