Isbert Adam and Martin Bendheim. Collection

Isbert Adam was born in Zempelberg (West Prussia, now Sepolno Krajenskie in Poland) in 1880. He was a Cuban national and he became honorary consul for Cuba in Danzig at the end of the 1930s. Isbert Adam also owned the shipping company "Havana importer S.A.". He presumably travelled to Antwerp in 1937 to create a Belgian branch of his business. His associates were Martin Bendheim (born in Frankfurt am Main in 1880) and Henri Van Immerzeel. Together with Adam Isbert, they imported and exported tobacco and art (including a painting or a sketch by Pieter-Paul Rubens). Based upon the collection content, it is presumed that Martin Bendheim, a Jewish tobacco dealer, was forced to close the "Havana importer S.A." branch in Brussels and/or Antwerp in 1941, possibly due to anti-Jewish measures, after which his collaboration with Adam and Van Immerzeel ended. No further information regarding Isbert Adam or Henri Van Immerzeel is available. Martin Bendheim was not deported from the Dossin barracks and presumably survived the war.

The documents were discovered at the home of Frans Broers by art historian Jacques Lust, a researcher who was appointed to track down art stolen from Jews in Belgium during World War II. Since Isbert Adam presumably visited Belgium only once, in 1937, it is more likely that the collection was created by his Jewish business associate Martin Bendheim.

Frans Broers via Jacques Lust, 2014