Paul Bucholz. Collection

Peisach alias Paul Bucholz was born on 8 February 1932 in Etterbeek, Brussels, the son of Mojsze Hast (born on 16 February 1900 in Warsaw, Poland) and Basze Laie Bucholz (born on 3 August 1907 in Warsaw, Poland). Mojsze migrated to Belgium in 1926 and became a kosher cook working on the ships of the Red Star Line. Here he met the seamstress Basze Laie Bucholz who had arrived in Belgium in 1922 with her parents and siblings. After having Paul, Basze Laie gave birth to two more sons: Salomon on 20 February 1933 and Jakob on 13 October 1939. The Hast-Bucholz family were poor, religious and spoke Yiddish at home. Paul’s maternal grandparents, uncles and aunts all lived close by in the Jewish quarter of Antwerp. In May 1940, when Nazi-Germany invaded Belgium, Paul, his parents and brothers were living in Wipstraat 42, Antwerp. In February 1942 they moved to Van Leriusstraat 34, also in Antwerp. Paul’s family obeyed the anti-Jewish decrees. On 16 December 1940, Basze Laie Bucholz registered herself and her sons in the municipal Jewish Register of Belgium. The family became members of the Association of Jews in Belgium in March 1942 and as of June 1942, all of them except for Jakob who was too young, wore the yellow star. In June 1942, Mojsze Hast was seconded by the German authorities and sent to northern France to work as a forced labourer for Organisation Todt. He worked as a cook in the French labour camps and was not deported with the other forced labourers in October 1942 because he was of value to the German guards. Meanwhile, his wife Basze Laie had received a work order (Arbeitseinsatzbefehl) which she refused to obey. She and the children went into hiding in Deurne, but Jakob cried too much. She then decided to place her youngest son in hiding in a care facility. When she learned he wasn’t fed properly, Basze Laie turned to a priest for help who placed Jakob in hiding with three elderly, catholic sisters in Forest, Brussels, who took good care of him. After a police commissioner warned Basze Laie about an upcoming raid, she found a new hiding place in Silsburg. She and Mojsze had lived there ten years before and she informed him about the new hiding place via mail, stating they were with “Philomena”. On 18 December 1942 Mojsze Hast was able to escape from a deportation train on route and joined his wife and two oldest sons in Silsburg. From time to time, Paul, ten years old, was sent out to get food at local grocery stores. The entire family survived the war in Silsburg and returned to Antwerp upon Liberation where they were reunited with youngest child Jakob. Father Mojsze started working as a cook for the British army. Paul finished Tachkemoni school and became a diamond cleaver. Unfortunately, not all of Paul’s relatives in Belgium survived the war. His maternal grandparents Juda Leib Bucholz and Marja Wolfsdorf, as well as his uncles Abraham Bucholz and Chaim Bucholc, and his aunt Fajga Bucholz were deported from the Dossin barracks to Auschwitz-Birkenau and were killed. Paul’s uncle Simon Bucholz was able to neutralize the person trying to arrest him and fled via France to Spain. Another uncle, Aron Bucholc, was detained in the Dossin barracks from where he attempted to escape, but failed. Aron was able to jump from Transport XX and survived the war.

On 19 December 2018 Paul Bucholz permitted the staff of Kazerne Dossin to interview him.

Paul Bucholz, 2018