Neumann-Wolfsztadt family. Collection

Baruch (Bernhard) Neumann, the donor’s father, was born in Cologne in 1906. When he was four years old, his parents relocated to Belgium, taking Baruch and his siblings with them. Baruch Neumann became a shoemaker. He met the Polish seamstress Bajla Liba Wolfsztat, whom had come to Belgium in 1927 to live with her sister Ruchla Wolfsztat, whom had migrated to Belgium in 1924. The couple got married and settled down in Brussels, where their daughter Raymonde was born in 1933. Bajla Liba’s mother, Maria Fridman, also lived at their apartment on 211 Rue Haute in Brussels. During the war, when most professions were forbidden for Jews, Baruch Neumann lived in Charleroi for a short while where he worked in the factories or mines to prevent deportation to France. Later, the Neumann family went into hiding. Raymonde was hidden by the Jewish Defence Committee (JDC, Comité de Défense des Juifs). Numerous other family members were, however, arrested and deported from the Dossin barracks to Auschwitz-Birkenau: Baruch's brother Maurice (Moise) Neuman with his wife Enia Leszcz and their children Raymonde Sara and Adolf, Baruch's brother David Isaac Neumann with his wife Jenny (Jeanne) Lewkowitz and their son Henri, and Bajla Liba's sister Ruchla Wolfsztat with her husband Maurice (Moszek Pinkus) Cygler and their sons Abram and Leon. All of them perished. Baruch Neumann himself was arrested and detained at the Dossin barracks on 12 August 1944. Although his name was added to the deportation list of transport XXVII, liberation of the camp at the beginning of September prevented this train from leaving the barracks. Baruch Neumann, his wife and daughter survived the war, after which son Albert was born. In May 1940, Nelly Dechesne (mother of Danielle Vincken) and her mother fled to France. There she met Israel Heinz (Henri) Alexandrowicz/Aleksandrowicz. After all three of them returned to Belgium, Israel Heinz wrote several times to Nelly. In 1944, he was deported from the Dossin barracks via Transport XXIV. Israel Heinz Alexandrowicz/Aleksandrowicz did not survive.

These photos were collected by Danielle Vincken, wife of Albert Neumann. She permitted digitisation of the collection in 2014, so missing photos of family members could be added to the commemoration wall at Kazerne Dossin.

Danielle Vincken, 2014