Steinhardt-Guelz family. Collection

Martin Steinhardt was born in Berlin, Germany, on 17 January 1913. On 13 August 1938 he married Margarethe Guelz, born in Bremen, Germany, on 15 May 1915. The couple settled at Rastenburgerstrasse 22 in Berlin. Four months later, in December 1938, Martin fled to Belgium due to the persecution of the Jewish community in Nazi-Germany. Upon arrival in Brussels he settled at Rue Verte 98 in Schaerbeek where his wife Margarethe was able to join him in February 1939. The Steinhardt-Guelz family received support from the Comité d’Aide et d’Assistance aux Victimes de l’Antisémitisme en Allemagne [Aid and Support Committee for victims of anti-Semitism in Germany], while they awaited their visa to emigrate to the United States. In August 1939 Martin and Margarethe were relocated to the refugee centre in Marneffe near Liège. Martin and Margarethe still lived at the centre when Nazi-Germany invaded Belgium on 10 May 1940. In June 1940 they left Marneffe and move to Rue des Tanneurs 112 in Brussels. Martin was registered as a chauffeur and electrician at the time. In September 1940 they moved to Rue Van Artevelde 24 in Brussels. Being Jewish, Martin and Margarethe were obliged to obey the anti-Jewish decrees: They registered in the municipal Jewish register in December 1940 and became members of the Association of Jews in Belgium in Spring 1942. In late 1942 the couple went into hiding. Martin was arrested by German authorities on 25 February 1944 and was deported from the Dossin barracks to Auschwitz-Birkenau via Transport XXIV on 4 April 1944. He was presumably murdered in Bergen-Belsen. Margarethe Guelz survived the war, living in hiding under the false name of Anne-Marie Richir, and remarried after Liberation.

Digital copies of the items in this collection were donated to the Jewish Museum of Deportation and Resistance, predecessor of Kazerne Dossin, in 2008.