Many German Holocaust survivors turned their back on German language and culture.
Not Berthold Herpe. Despite internment in Dachau and years in exile in Shanghai, he never lost his love of all things German. Throughout his six decades living in the Bay Area he remained active with several German clubs.
“He always taught us life is too short to waste time hating anyone,” said his son Walter Herpe.
Berthold Herpe died peacefully in his sleep at Walter’s Lake County home. He was 100.
“He was one of those people who walks in a room and you’re just happy,” said Herpe’s granddaughter Dena Kline of Eugene, Ore. “What kept him in such high spirits and living to 100 was he didn’t have hatred. He loved love, he loved people.”
Herpe certainly could have been awash in bitterness. Most of his family, including his mother and sister, died in the Holocaust.
After eight years in Shanghai, he and his young family made their way to San Francisco. He raised three sons, worked as a baker for the Langendorf and Orowheat bakeries, and lived a long, happy life, mostly in San Francisco’s Sunset District.
Herpe was born in Essen, Germany, in 1909, and brought up in Frankfurt in an Orthodox home. He met his future wife, Clara, while making bread deliveries to her family home. The two married, but in 1938 he was sent to Dachau.
As this was before the full implementation of the Final Solution, Herpe gained his release from the concentration camp by renouncing his German citizenship and moving to China. He left for the Far East with his wife, riding out the war years in Shanghai.
The couple’s eldest son, Alfred, was born there. In the late 1940s, the family immigrated to San Francisco, where two more sons, Harry and Walter, were born. The family belonged to Congregation B’nai Emunah.
“He was a good family guy,” Walter said. “He always put his family first. When he came to the United States, he wanted to be an American citizen. Even after he got it, we had the polling booths in our garage.”
Clara died in 1967. Two years later, Herpe was reintroduced to an old friend from Shanghai, Leah Hirschel. The two married; Leah died in 1991.
Because of his abiding love of German culture, Herpe joined German clubs all over town. One time he mentioned to his wife he planned to join the San Francisco German Choir. She discouraged him from doing so.
“He said, ‘Don’t worry. I’m not joining. I can’t sing anyway,’ ” Walter related.
Nonetheless, his father joined, and sang with the group for decades, though, his son added, “They always kept him in the back row, because he was right.”
In his later years, Herpe kept busy with his clubs and with family. He threw himself a birthday party every year, including a bash last October for his 100th birthday. Even into his 90s he could be counted on to get up and do the Chicken Dance.
Kline noted that Herpe stayed in regular touch with his young great-grandchildren through Skype, a computer videophone program.
“They loved Opa,” she said of her two sons. “My kids had a great relationship with this man they could see over the computer. When they saw him they would do the Chicken Dance. They saw this man who brought joy.”
For the last several years of his life, Herpe lived with his son, Alfred, and later with Walter. Well into his late 90s, he remained active and mobile, but eventually time caught up with his vivacious spirit.
In his last months, Herpe had a routine of saying goodnight to his son and thanking him.
“On his last night I said to him, ‘I love you,’ ” said Walter Herpe. “And this time he said, ‘Tell everyone thank you for everything.’ ”
Berthold Herpe is survived by sons Alfred Herpe of Daly City, Harry Herpe of Millbrae and Walter Herpe of Kelseyville, eight grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. Donations may be made to Congregation Beth Israel–Judea, Congregation B’nai Emunah, or Hospice of Lake County.