Eli Ringer. Collection

Eli Ringer, born on 30 May 1943, was the son of Salomon Ringer and Liane Pappenheim. Salomon, born on 8 February 1913, and his parents got their hands on Paraguayan identification papers on 21 October 1942. Liane was born on 18 November 1911. She and Salomon married on 15 April 1935 and had four children. Salomon, Liane and their family were orthodox Jews. Eli’s grandparents, Chaim Ringer born on 19 January 1883 and Ettel Langerman born on 1 November 1881, originated from Krakow in Poland. They had arrived in Belgium in the early 1920’s. Salomon was their only son, and after the war also their only heir. Chaim and Ettel were arrested on 11 December 1942 and deported from the Dossin barracks to Auschwitz-Birkenau with Transport XIX on 15 January 1943. Having been imprisoned on 20 February 1943 by the Nazis in Antwerp, because of the Paraguayan identification papers the family could get, Salomon was treated more as a political prisoner. Salomon has been in seven or eight internierungslager, with his first transport dating from 20 February 1943. By the end of the war, Salomon got to go from the camp in Bergen-Belsen to Laufen, to Tittmoning Bayern for two years to Stalag and through Switzerland because of a prisoner exchange with Nazi-Germany. After this he had to go to a UNRRA camp in Algeria on 20 February 1945. Because he did not hold Belgian nationality, his return to Belgium did not go very easy and required much paperwork. Salomon became one of the few Jewish recognized political prisoners in Belgium. He was imprisoned for almost two years. Salomon’s wife Liane Pappenheim stayed in Belgium with their children. Two of them, Rachel Ringer born on 15 November 1937 and Anna Ringer born on 18 November 1938, were hidden for several months in the province Limburg with the family Juchtmans. Mr. Juchtmans helped Jews with blankets in the winter of 1940 and with cooking equipment. He was a leader at the Belgian scouting and worked as an engineer in the mines. Eli’s brother Benjamin, born on 6 June 1940, was hidden for a while in Antwerp with the Van Loon family. Around 1943, the Nazis took custody of their house in Berchem at Generaal Capiaumonstraat 24. The non-Jews who then came to live there did not want to leave the house even after the war ended. At a time by the end of 1943, the house was even sealed by the Nazis to check again if there were absolutely no possessions left belonging to Eli’s grandparents. As an Austrian-born, Liane Pappenheim spoke German and she was blonde, so she felt safe enough to complain about her family’s claim to the house at the Kommandantur. Her attempt was however for a long time in vain. She was also summoned to the head of the Sipo-SD in Wilrijk, Erich Holm, to explain her family’s possession of Paraguayan passports. During the war, Liane Pappenheim delivered kosher food to the Jews hiding in the St.-Erasmus hospital. After the liberation she invited allied soldiers over, among whom the American soldier David Stein who became a close family friend and came over many times for Shabbat celebrations. Liane also began actions to aid the Jewish children like the ones from the family Shönfeld, Jewish orphans, and to aid other people in need like Malvine Babad. Liane became the first volunteer teacher of the Jesode Hatora school after the war. When Salomon returned after the war, he did everything in his power together with Mr. J.Rottenberg (son of the former Rabbi M.Rottenberg) and Mr. S.Klagsbald to rebuild the Jesode Hatora and the orthodox congregation Machsike Hadas.

On 5 January 2022, Eli Ringer kindly permitted Kazerne Dossin to digitise one hundred and thirty-three photographs and one hundred and twenty documents in this collection.

Eli Ringer