Testimony of Leon Genislav, born in Brussels, Belgium in 1927, regarding his experiences while in hiding in Brussels
Family of emigres from Poland that resided in Brussels; his father is a coal miner; good relations with the local population; outbreak of the war in 1940; life under German occupation; dispersion of his family to various hiding places in 1942; they are informed on; detention of his parents and their deportation to Mechelen camp; life with the Nils family until 1944; liberation; information regarding his parents' fate; he joins the Hashomer Hatzair movement and makes aliya to Eretz Israel from...
-German occupation in 1940; air-raids and escape of her family to Bordeaux,France in 1940; escape to Toulouse and from there to Beaune; failed attempt to move to Portugal because of visas that are expired and return to Perpignan in 1940; the father obtains transit certificates to Portugal; moving via Spain to Lisboa, Portugal; life as refugees in Lisboa for a year, immigration to La Habana as refugees, citizens of Poland; Cuba in 1941 and from there, to New York,USA,and aliya to Israel in 1968
Testimony of Ayalon (Windholtz) Yehuda, born in Berlin, Germany in 1930, regarding his experiences in Belgium in 1938 and in hiding from 1942 to 1944
Orthodox family; detention of his uncles in Sachsenhausen; Kristallnacht; move, with help from assistance organizations, to Antwerp; parents crossing the border to Belgium illegally in 1939; occupation of Belgium in May 1940 by the German army; assembly of Jews without Belgian citizenship who had lived in Antwerp and expulsion to forced labor in Limborg district; living with local farmers and labor in farming for half a year; return of witness, with his mother,...
Testimony of Sarah Sylvia (Tzinader) Manes, born in 1930 in Stolberg, Germany
Her father immigrated from Galicia; her father's occupation - management of the family grocery store; good relations with the German saleswomen; the closing of the grocery store in 1938; her father's deportation to Poland; transfer of the witness with Kindertransport to her relatives who lived in Belgium, in January 1939; illegal border crossing into Belgium by two of her brothers in 1940; attempted escape to France with the beginning of the German occupation; deportation of her mother to Aachen camp; marched to a transport in...
Childhood in Berlin as the Nazis rise to power; escapes with parents to Brussels in 1938 (illegally); life under German occupation in 1940; father arrested and deported to a camp in 1941; mother falls ill and is taken to the Jewish Weisenbeek hospital near Brussels in 1941; witness placed in a residence at a teachers' college in Laeken in 1942 under a false identity; transferred to a convent in Chimay, spends several months there and is evicted in 1942; placed in the Pensiona des Soeurs de St. Vincent de Paul convent in Obourg, Mons Département; lives in the convcent under a false identity until liberation;...
Testimony of Chaim Henri Feldman, born in Brussels, Belgium in 1938, regarding his experiences as a child while in hiding in Brussels and in an orphanage in Namur
Life in his parents' home;
Finding him a hiding place in his aunt's home in Brussels; escape back to his family's home; receiving information regarding a deportation to Mechelen camp and from there to Auschwitz camp on Transport no. 16 in 1942; visit by two Belgian women who are members of the Belgian underground, Jeanne and Andrée Guelen; separation from his mother; Allied Forces' air-raids; transfer to Villa Mille Fleurs in Namur; life in...
Testimony of Rita (Halbersberg) Zeltzer, born in Kiel, Germany in 1931, regarding her experiences as a child in Berlin, in Antwerp, in a village in the Diepenbeek area, in a monastery in Gellick and in other places
Rise to power of the Nazi Party, 1933; deportation to Berlin with her family; anti-Jewish legislation; publication of Nazi propaganda; abuse of people on the street by Hitlerjugend members; Kristallnacht, November 1938; escape to Antwerp; death of her mother;
German occupation, May 1940; detention of her father, and his release; capture and deportation with her father and sister on a train to...
Testimony of Gitla Juliet Naomi (Kempner) Alter, born in Pabjanice, Poland, 1922, regarding her experiences in Antwerp, Brussels and in hiding
Emigration of her family from Poland to Antwerp; her childhood, until the outbreak of the war.
German Army occupation of Belgium; escape to Brussels with her family; in hiding in various places including Liege; receives help from the local population; in hiding in a monastery; liberation by the US Army, 1944.
Life after the war; aliya to Israel, 2000.
Testimony of David Desider Steinmetz, born in 1925 in Satu Mare, Romania, about his experiences in Heide, Oostende, Marseille, the Les Milles camp, and other locations
Life before the war; offspring of a Satmar and Sighet Hasidic family; emigration to Belgium in 1937; life in Antwerp; attending a yeshiva in Heide; German occupation ensues in 1940; escaping to Oostende; bombardment of Dunkirk; escaping to Gravelines in 1940; fleeing back to Antwerp; life under German occupation; escaping to Paris in 1941 after receiving a deportation order in Limbourg; escaping to Marseille (in the Free Zone) in 1941; life...