Artifact of the Month: February 2018
Testimony of grades from Primary School
Ammely Plenby (1898 – 1982)
Ammely Plenby was born in Kristiania as one of 11 children to Esther (b. Schatz 1871 in Karlskrona, Sweden) and Moses Goldmann. Moses Goldmann was originally from Kaunas, Lithuania, and came to Norway in 1886. He established himself as a watchmaker at Grünerløkka and died in Kristiania in 1923. At that time only 6 of Moses and Esther's 11 children were still alive. Another daughter, Gittel (born 1894) died in Oslo in 1932.
In 1912, Ammely received her testimony of grades from Kristiania Folkeskole, department of Vaterland. This was a Primary school intended for children between 7 and 14 years of age. Ammely worked for some years as a shopkeeper before she married Gabriel Plesansky (born in Smorgon, now Belarus) in 1921. Ammely and Gabriel had four children; Kjell (born 1922), Mauritz (born 1924), Steinar (born 1930) and Evy (born 1933).
In November of 1942, Gabriel and Mauritz were deported. Both were killed in Auschwitz in early 1943. Ammely and the children managed to escape to Sweden, along with Ammelys brother, Leopold (born 1900) and sister Ida (born 1907). The youngest sister Harriet (born 1911) married Oskar Ospovat in 1935 and moved to Denmark. Their mother Esther was in hospital during the entire war and died in Oslo in 1949. That same year, the family changed their surname, from Plesansky to Plenby. Ammely Plenby died in Oslo in 1982, 84 years old.