Salomon van Dam. Collection

Salomon alias Edmond van Dam was born on 22 July 1883 in Antwerp, Belgium, as one of eight children of the Dutch-Jewish couple Hijman Isaac van Dam and Sara Andriessen. Salomon studied to become a dentist and obtained his diploma in 1901. On 24 May 1933, Salomon van Dam married the non-Jewish Yvonne Flamme, who had been born in Woluwé-Saint-Lambert, Belgium, on 2 October 1904. The couple first lived at Charlottalei 66 in Antwerp, and later moved to Belgiëlei 171. On 24 July 1936, Yvonne gave birth to a baby boy named Hadelin van Dam. The van Dam-Flamme family was well-to-do. As of 1937 they lived at Quinten Matsijslei 47 where Salomon also ran his own dental practice. As of 1938, Salomon employed dental technician Marcel Quittner, a Jewish refugee from Vienna, Austria. Upon the invasion of Belgium by Nazi-Germany on 10 May 1940, the van Dam-Flamme family fled to France. Salomon, Yvonne and Hadelin reached Bordeaux, but then returned to Antwerp, where Salomon was soon subjected to anti-Jewish measures installed by the occupying authorities. He was, for example, forced to register himself in the municipal Jewish register of Antwerp on 20 December 1940. In March 1941 the van Dam-Flamme family moved to Grand Rue 1 in Blaton, Belgium, near the French border. The Antwerp municipality considered this house to be their second residence. In Blaton, Salomon continued to practice dentistry. He also commuted to Antwerp to continue to treat his patients. In May 1942 a new anti-Jewish decree diminished the number of Jewish health professionals. Salomon van Dam was one of the few Jewish dentists that was allowed to continue their business, although he could only treat Jewish patients from then on. Salomon also received permission to continue to use the tram in Antwerp and he officially received an exemption to wear the yellow Star of David. Nonetheless, Salomon van Dam was arrested during one of his work visits to Antwerp since he was not staying at his official address in Antwerp which was obligatory for Jews in Belgium at the time. Salomon was subsequently held at the Begijnenstraat prison, but was released after a short while. On 25 July 1942, the van Dam-Flamme family left Blaton and returned to their home at Quinten Matsijslei 47 in Antwerp. To obtain funds, the family sold some furniture and jewelry via their acquaintances in Blaton, and, in order to protect their son Hadelin, the child was baptized by father Pottiez in Blaton in August 1942. At the end of November 1942, Salomon and his wife Yvonne received word that the Wehrmacht was taking over their rental apartment at Quinten Matsijslei 47. The van Dam-Flamme family subsequently relocated to a rental apartment at Antoon van Dyckstraat 36 in Antwerp, and, in April 1943, they clandestinely moved to Rue Léon Mignon 68 in Schaerbeek, where they took on false names. Salomon van Dam became Edmond Huygens, while Yvonne and Hadelin remained Yvonne and Hadelin van Dam. Salomon, his wife Yvonne and their son Hadelin all survived the war in Brussels. Due to bombardments around the time of liberation, the van Dam-Flamme family returned to Blaton in November 1944, where they remained until October 1947. Afterwards, the family continued to live in Antwerp. Salomon and Yvonne’s son Hadelin married and had three children, including a daughter named Fabienne Esther van Dam. Salomon van Dam passed away on 10 September 1951, Yvonne Flamme on 17 December 1960 and their son Hadelin van Dam on 13 September 2024.

On 14 October 2024, Fabienne van Dam, granddaughter of Salomon van Dam, donated the original documents and the original newspaper article in this collection to Kazerne Dossin. She also simultaneously gave Kazerne Dossin permission to digitise the photographs that are part of this collection. All the pieces came from the estate of Fabienne's father Hadelin van Dam, son of Salomon alias Edmond van Dam.

Fabienne van Dam, 2024