Liwszyc-Jagolkowska family. Collection

Jacob Liwszyc was born in Warsaw, Poland, on 21 April 1898. He became a merchant and, in July 1918 in Odessa, he married Wiera alias Vera Jagolkowska, who was born in Voronezh, the Russian Empire, on 11 July 1899. On 29 December 1927 Jacob migrated from Danzig to Belgium where he joined his father Leib Liwszyc who had arrived here in 1926. Jacob also had a brother who was living in Belgium: Gregoire alias Gorik Liwszyc. Vera followed Jacob to Belgium on 12 January 1928 in the company of their son Victor who had been born in Danzig on either 6 August or 6 November 1921. Jacob and Vera Liwszyc-Jagolkowska started their own hat business in Ixelles, Brussels, where their youngest child, a daughter named Rachel alias Caroline or Lina, was born on 21 February 1928. Sadly, on 10 October 1931, son Victor passed away in the Belgian capital. When Nazi-Germany invaded Belgium on 10 May 1940 the Liwszyc-Jagolkowska family still resided in Brussels. They obeyed the first anti-Jewish decree and registered themselves in the municipal Jewish register of Ixelles on 20 December 1940. However, the family did not obey other anti-Jewish decrees installed later on during the war. Although becoming a member of the Association of Jews in Belgium was obligatory as of Spring 1942 Jacob did not file a form for his family. And although he bought two pieces of cloth with three yellow badges in the summer of 1942 the family never wore a yellow star of David. With the number of arrests in Brussels increasing and a large raid taking place in the capital in the night of 3 on 4 September 1942 Jacob and Vera Liwszyc-Jagolkowska decided to place their daughter Lina in hiding. Lina took ballet lessons with Jeanne Periphanos. Jeanne spontaneously offered to help her student and hid her in her own home at Rue Rubens in Schaerbeek, Brussels, together with another – so for unidentified – Jewish child. Lina had a good life with Jeanne. The girl was able to continue her dance lessons and occasionally visited the theatre. Every two weeks she visited her parents Jacob and Vera who were hiding in their house at Rue du Page 67 in Ixelles. Each night Jacob and Vera would sleep in the attic in order to be able to escape in case of a raid. They were able to provide for themselves by continuing to make hats. Vera would regularly go out to sell them. During one of these business trips she encountered the Jewish snitch le gros Jacques (Icek Glogowski) who luckily did not recognize Vera. In early 1943 Lina was almost caught during a raid in the neighbourhood where Jeanne lived after which Jeanne decided to find a safer place for the girl. Lina took on the false name of Lina Pasqual and was placed at several locations in Brussels and the area around Antwerp, including the Opdebeek boarding house in Kasterlee. While in hiding Lina received letters from her family, including one from her uncle Gregoire alias Gorik Liwszyc, his wife Natacha and their child, and one from her parents in which they told Lina in code about the Jewish snitch le gros Jacques (Icek Glogowski), referred to as “diftérite J.” in the letter. Jeanne Periphanos eventually hid Lina at a school of the Soeurs Servite de Marie in Uccle where Jeanne also taught dance. Lina remained there until Liberation, when she was reunited with her parents Jacob and Vera. Her uncle Gregoire, aunt Natacha and cousin also survived the war. After the war Lina became a physiotherapist. In 1952 she married Fernand Remy with whom she had a daughter, Odile Remy, in 1956. Lina remained close friends with her rescuer Jeanne until Lina passed away in 1998. Lina’s daughter Odile maintained the family relationship with Jeanne and is the life partner of Jeanne’s son Jean. On 21 June 2007, a few days after Jeanne Periphanos passed away, she was recognized as Righteous among the Nations.

Odile Remy, granddaughter of Jacob Liwszyc and Vera (Wiera) Jagolkowska, became a staff member of the Jewish Museum of Deportation and Resistance, predecessor of Kazerne Dossin, in 1996. In 2012 she donated a piece of cloth with three Belgian yellow badges to the museum (A011436). Upon retiring in 2021, Odile Remy donated the additional items in this collection to Kazerne Dossin.

Odile Remy, 2012 and 2021