Dutkiewicz-Wagner family. Collection

Gdalja alias Georges Dutkiewicz was born in Ciechanowice, Poland, on 15 March 1897 as the son of Zelman Dutkiewicz and Tauba Tabak. Gdalja became a tailor and migrated via Paris to Brussels in September 1921, probably in the company of seamstress Laja Wagner. Laja had been born in Zyrardow, Poland, on 15 October 1897 as the daughter of David Hirschel Wagner and Chaja Perla Grunberg. Gdalja and Laja had presumably religiously married and settled at Rue Frère-Orban 15 in Brussels, but relocated to Rue Jacobs-Fontaine 6 after a short while. Their oldest child, a daughter named Pauline, was born in Brussels on 30 April 1923. In 1926 the family moved to Rue Rogier 182a in Schaerbeek where a son named Raphael was born on 22 December 1926. On 31 March 1928 Gdalja and Laja got officially married at the town hall of Schaerbeek. On 27 May 1932 their youngest child, a boy named Joseph Simon, was born in Schaerbeek. By then the family had moved to Rue Thomas Vinçotte 53 in Schaerbeek. Gdalja Dutkiewicz passed away on 11 August 1939 in Brussels. The Dutkiewicz-Wagner family still lived at Rue Thomas Vinçotte when Nazi-Germany invaded Belgium on 10 May 1940. Laja Wagner and her children obeyed the anti-Jewish decrees: they registered in the municipal Jewish register at the end of 1940 and became members of the Association of Jews in Belgium in the spring of 1942. In July 1942 oldest children Raphael and Pauline Dutkiewicz received an Arbeitseinsatzbefehl or convocation for forced labour. Raphael and Pauline reported at the Dossin barracks and were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau via transport I on 4 August 1942. Neither survived. Laja Wagner took on the false identity of Jeanne Dandoitt and found a hiding place in Leuven. However, she was denounced and arrested, after which her true identity was discovered. Laja Wagner was registered at the Dossin barracks on 29 February 1944. She was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau via Transport XXIV on 4 April 1944 and did not survive. Laja Wagner had placed her youngest child Joseph Simon Dutkiewicz in hiding via the catholic hiding network run by priest Bruno Reynders in the Leuven area. Joseph took on the false name Joseph Butin and was placed in hiding at several catholic institutes. He thus survived the war. After Liberation, Joseph was placed at the Jewish children’s home located at Profondsart near Limal. Later on he married and built a family. Joseph Simon Dutkiewicz passed away on 19 October 2018.

Patrick Dutkiewicz, grandson of Gdalja and Laja Dutkiewicz-Wagner, kindly permitted Kazerne Dossin to digitise items from his family archive in 2020. These items include the documents confiscated from Laja Wagner upon her arrival at the Dossin barracks in 1944. The envelope and its content were part of the relics collection (KD_00005) until they were returned to the Dutkiewicz family in 1993.

Patrick Dutkiewicz, 2020