DEICH (DEITCH) (née Brickman) Gitele Moiseevna
(b. 18 December 1910, Tukums) – Seamstress.
Gitele Deich was the daughter of Leia Brickman (b. 1885, Tukums – d. 1941, Liepāja) and Moisey Brickman (b. 1882, Tukums – d. 1918, Zemlyansk), a butcher. Between 1910 and 1914, she lived in Tukums. From 1914 to 1920, the family was evacuated to Russia and settled in Zemlyansk. In 1920, her mother returned to Liepāja with the children.
From 1920 to 1923, she studied at a Jewish primary school in Liepāja, and from 1923 to 1931 worked as a seamstress in Levenson’s workshop in Liepāja. In 1931, she moved to Riga, where she worked at the Kort workshop until 1940. In 1941, she was evacuated to Uzbekistan and worked at the Stalin kolkhoz in Samarkand Region until 1942. From 1942 to 1945, she served as a nanny in a nursery in the village of Laim, Akdarya District.
After returning to Riga in 1945, she worked as a packer at the VEF factory until 1955, then as a seamstress at the Brīvība Artel. In the 1960s, she was employed as a sewer in the laundry at Riga’s 1st City Clinical Hospital.
She was married to Chaim Deich (b. 1911, Daugavpils – missing in action during WWII). They had one son, Iosif Deich (b. 1940, Riga). During the Holocaust, her mother and brothers – Leizer Brickman (b. 1908, Tukums) and Meer Brickman (b. 1918, Zemlyansk) – were killed in Liepāja in 1941. Her siblings Mordkhai Brickman (b. 1913, Tukums) and Etel Segal (née Brickman) (b. 1912, Tukums) emigrated to what is now Israel in the 1930s.
Gitele first applied for emigration to Israel in the 1950s, but her request was only granted in 1972.
Chaim Deich (b. 1911, Daugavpils – date of death unknown) – husband
Iosif Deich (b. 1940, Riga) – son
Leia Brickman (b. 1885, Tukums – d. 1941, Liepāja) – mother
Moisey Brickman (b. 1882, Tukums – d. 1918, Zemlyansk) – father
Leizer Brickman (b. 1908, Tukums – d. 1941, Liepāja) – brother
Meer Brickman (b. 1918, Zemlyansk – d. 1941, Liepāja) – brother
Mordkhai Brickman (b. 1913, Tukums) – brother
Etel Segal (née Brickman) (b. 1912, Tukums) – sister