Tell No One Who You Are Page 15

  As the arrests and deportation of Jews mounted, the Comité de Défense des Juifs was formed in 1943, uniting a wide spectrum of Jewish political and cultural groups. They were assisted by an equally wide range of non-Jewish Belgian organisations, leftist, humanitarian and Christian.

  Fela Mucha-Herman, alias Nicole alias Marie-Solidarité

  Fela Mucha was a convoyeuse, one who picked up the Jewish children from their parents, took them to hiding places, checked that they were properly looked after, and following the war, returned them to parents or other relatives who survived or found sanctuaries for them. As soon as the first arrests of Jews took place, all her waking hours were devoted to saving children. Still a believing communist at war’s end, she and her second husband, Edgar Herman, and their son and daughter moved to Poland to help build the great new socialist state. “By our second day there, I was completely disillusioned,” she remarked shortly before her 80th birthday in 1994. “Anti-semitism, corruption, greed, bribery, favoritism were even more rampant than when I left Poland in 1938.” It was six years before she and her family could return to Belgium. “Still, I’m glad I was a communist back then early in the war. It permitted me to do the most important work of my life.” Several hundred Jewish children owe their survival to her help.

  The German Deportations

  The names and birthdates of the members of Régine Miller’s family, the German convoy that took them from Belgium to Poland, and the number ascribed to each are all taken from German lists published in 1982. All Jews arrested in Belgium passed through the SS army depot at Malines (Mechelen) near Brussels where they were given numbers before being transported to the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz.

  From the number of the transport, we know that Régine’s mother was the first in the family to be picked up by the Gestapo. She was on convoy No.11 that left Belgium with 1,742 Jews, including 523 children, on September 26, 1942 and arrived at Auschwitz on September 28. Of these 344 were assigned to work duty and only 30 survived the war. All the others died in the gas chambers.

  Her father was on the next convoy (No.12) that left Belgium October 10 along with convoy No.13 carrying 1,679 Jews, of which 487 were children. Only 54 survived.

  Her brother Léon, who had been conscripted by the Germans in July and sent as forced labor to build fortifications on the northern coast of France, was returned along with the other young Jewish conscripts to Malines where they were registered and put on convoys No.16 and No.17. They left with 1,937 prisoners, including 137 children, on October 31. At the Belgian-German frontier 241 managed to escape from the train. (Régine liked to believe that her brother had been among them; when he did not return, she thought he might have been shot trying to escape.) Only 85 survived from these two convoys.

  Régine’s aunt Ida and uncle Zigmund were both on the same convoy — No. 18 — that left Malines along with convoy No.19 on January 15, 1943 with 1,632 prisoners, of which 287 were children. Seventy-seven managed to escape at the border. Of the 1,555 who arrived at Auschwitz on January 18, 468 were assigned to work duty. The balance were sent to the gas chambers.

  In all 26 convoys left Malines between August 4, 1942 and July 31, 1944, carrying 25,257 Jews from Belgium to the death camp of Auschwitz. An additional two convoys took 218 to other German concentration camps, 132 of them to Buchenwald.

  World War II in Belgium

  On the eve of the Nazi invasion, the Jewish population of Belgium was 66,000 (out of a total population of 8.3 million). Only ten percent of Jews however were Belgian citizens. Most of the others had come from Eastern Europe (mainly Poland) and Germany, escaping the Nazi threat. Thirty-three thousand Jews lived in Brussels, primarily in the district of Anderlecht, near the train station.

  There were very close ties between Jewish groups and Belgian leftist movements, and this would prove to be very important in rescue efforts and the (relative) success of the Resistance efforts during the war. A total of 70,000 people were in the Resistance in Belgium. The Comité de Défense des Juifs helped find hiding places for Jews. Their children’s branch, Oeuvre Nationale de l’Enfance, hid 4,000 children.

  May 22, 1939 Germany and Italy sign pact proclaiming military alliance.

  Sept. 1-2 Germans invade and occupy Poland.

  Sept. 3 Britain and France declare war on Germany.

  Oct. 27 Belgians declare neutrality in war.

  Jan. 10, 1940 Germans draw up plans to invade Belgium/Netherlands.

  Jan. 15 Belgians refuse to allow British/French troops to cross through Belgian territory.

  April Germans invade and occupy Denmark and Norway.

  May 10 Germans invade Belgium, Netherlands and northwestern France.

  May 17 Germans complete invasion of Belgium; occupation begins.

  May 28 Belgian king (Leopold) surrenders.

  May Many Belgian Jews leave (or try to) for France and/or England.

  June Fall of France.

  June 10 Italy declares war on France and Britain.

  July 17 Battle of Britain begins.

  Sept. 17 Beginning of London Blitz.

  Oct. 23 “Ritual slaughter of animals” is outlawed by Nazi authorities in Belgium. Arrest of many Jewish “leftists.”

  Oct. 28 Germans define who is a Jew and enforce Jewish census. Jews banned from public administration, legal, teaching and media positions.

  1941 During 1941, more than 40,000 German and Belgian Jews are deported to the Warsaw Ghetto.

  May 31 Belgian-Jewish enterprises forced to identify themselves as such; withdrawals by Jews from their bank accounts restricted.

  June Operation Barbarossa, Germans invade Russia.

  Aug. 29 Freedom of movement for Jews limited to four major cities (Brussels, Antwerp, Liege, Charleroi); nightly curfew from 8:00 pm to 7:00 am.

  Dec. 1 Jews expelled from public schools (implemented four months later).

  Dec Japanese attack Pearl Harbor. Americans enter the war.

  Jan. 1942 Nightly raids by Allies on France, Belgium, Holland begin.

  Jan. 17 Jews are forbidden to leave Belgium.

  Jan 20 “Final Solution” drafted at Wannsee Conference, Berlin.

  March-April Liquidation of Jewish businesses.

  March 11 Forced labor for Jews decreed; deportations begin many are sent to northern France to construct fortifications along the coast.

  April 1 Implementation of public school expulsion.

  May 27 Nazis order the wearing of yellow badge in shape of Star of David to publicly identify Jews.

  June 1 Restrictions placed on Jews practising medicine.

  July 22 First arrests of Jews at train station in Antwerp.

  Aug. 4 Deportations to concentration camps begin. At first, only Jews who are not Belgian citizens are deported.

  Sept 15 Jewish Defence Committee formed. Allies itself with Jewish Communists and Zionist groups. Efforts made to find hiding places, especially for children.

  Jan. 1943 Red Army takes Stalingrad and Leningrad, German retreat begins.

  Jan. 20 Jean de Selys Longchamps, a Belgian pilot in the R.A.F., bombs the Gestapo headquarters in Brussels, providing a moral boost to all Belgians.

  April 19 Start of Warsaw Ghetto uprising.

  July 9 Invasion of Sicily by Allies.

  March 1944 “Pre-invasion” bombing of northern France, Belgium, Holland: aircraft factories, V-weapon sites.

  June 4 British and American troops enter Rome.

  June 6 D Day landings in Normandy.

  Sept. 3 Brussels and Antwerp liberated by Allies. British and Canadian troops through northern Belgium; American troops through south.

  Sept. 8 Italy surrenders to Allies.

  Oct. Allied drive to capture port of Antwerp succeeds; Allies go on to Holland.

  Nov. German V1 and V2 counterattacks in Belgium, Holland. Belgium is liberated by the end of the month.

  Dec. - Jan. German counterattack (Ardennes) in the southeast of Belgium: known as the Battle of
the Bulge. Americans attack from west and south, British from north. Fierce fighting accompanied by heavy air bombardments.

  Jan. 1945 Liberation of Auschwitz by Russian troops.

  Jan. 28 End of Battle of the Bulge. Last German troops leave Belgian soil.

  April 25 Russian, American troops meet at Torgau (Germany) to split German armies.

  April 28 Mussolini killed.

  April 30 Hitler commits suicide.

  May 7 Germany surrenders.

  Bibliography

  Gilbert, Martin, Atlas of the Holocaust, London: Michael Joseph Limited, 1982.

  Gutman, Israel, ed. in chief, Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, Vol I,III, New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1990.

  Klarsfeld, Serge, Mémorial de la déportation des Juifs de Belgique présenté par Serge Klarsfeld et Maxime Steinberg, édité par l’Union des déportés juifs en Belgique et Filles et fils de la déportation, Bruxelles, New York: The Beate Klarsfeld Foundation, 1982.

  Pitt, Barrie and Frances, The Chronological Atlas of World War II, Toronto: Lester & Orpen Dennys Limited, 1989.

  Steinberg, Maxime, Le Dossier Bruxelles-Auschwitz: La police SS et l’extermination des Juifs de Belgique, édité par le Comité belge de soutien à la partie civile dans le procès des officiers SS Ehlers, Asche, Canaris, responsables de la déportation des Juifs de Belgique, avenue de la Toison d’Or, 16 bte 3 1060, Bruxelles, 1980.

  Steinberg, Maxime, L’Étoile et le Fusil, Tome I, La question juive 1940-1942, Bruxelles: Éditions Vie ouvrière, 1984.

  Steinberg, Maxime, L’Étoile et le Fusil, Tome II, 1942 Les cent jours de la déportation des Juifs de Belgique, Bruxelles: Éditions Vie ouvrière, 1986.

  Steinberg, Maxime, L’Étoile et le Fusil, Tome III, La traque des Juifs 1942–1944, Bruxelles: Éditions Vie ouvrière, 1986.

  Steinberg, Maxime, Extermination, sauvetage et résistance des Juifs de Belgique, Comité d’hommage des Juifs de Belgique à leurs héros et sauveurs, Bulletin périodique de documentation No. 4, avril 1979.

  Teitelbaum-Hirch, Viviane, Enfants cachés: Les Larmes sous le masque, Bruxelles, Editions Labor, 1994