Hauser-Ingber family. Collection

Michael Bolle Van Ham has family ties to the large Hauser and Ingber families. His father, Johnny Bolle-Van Ham was the first of two children of Elisabeth Ingber and of Marcel Franciscus Bolle. Johnny Bolle-Van Ham also had a sister. Michael’s grandfather, Marcel Bolle, was himself the son of Johan Gerard Bolle, president of the Diamantclub (Diamond Club) in Antwerp, and Virginia Van Ham. Marcel’s wife Elisabeth Ingber was born on 14 September 1900 in Antwerp, Belgium. She was one of the seven children of Jacob Ingber, born on 20 February 1867 in Sandomierz, and Régina Neubauer, born on 15 April 1872 in Vienna. The other six children of this couple were: Alvine (born on 28 November 1896), Gisella (born on 7 April 1898 and died 28 August of the same year), Melanie (born on 29 April 1899), Arthur (born on 8 June 1903), Charlotta (born on 19 July 1908) and Mauritz Bernhard. Jacob Ingber moved to Belgium in 1893 and soon became a diamond broker. The registrations of Jews during the war indicate that on the Ingber side of the family, more relatives remained in Antwerp, at least at the beginning of the occupation. Of the children of Jacob Ingber we have the following information. Melanie Ingber had married Pinkus (or Paul) Barber, but later divorced him and came from Krakau back to Antwerp where she first had come.. When work orders were sent out in 1942, Mélanie had presented herself with her Arbeitseinsatzbefehl at the Kazerne Dossin. She was deported with Transport III to Auschwitz on 15 August 1942 which is where she died. The last address Mélanie gave was the Van Luppenstraat in Antwerp, the same address of Marcel Bolle and Elisabeth Ingber. Johan Gerard Bolle, father of Marcel, also had property in the Vestingstraat in Antwerp where possibly Jacob and Regina were in hiding. Charlotta (also Lotty) Ingber married Salomon Reinhold. Together they had two sons: René and Sylvain. Charlotta and her two sons were arrested a first time on the street and loaded on a truck. At that moment Johnny Bolle came from around the corner running into the street. She called out to him "boy, tell your mother that I will not be coming home tonight". She probably did not want to mention his name, afraid that he would be arrested as well. This was a traumatic experience for Johnny and after this incident he wandered all day through Antwerp and he kept this in mind all his life. At this time, the Belgian nationality of Charlotta and her sons saved them from deportation. On 29 June 1943 they were released, however during Aktion Iltis on the night from 3 to 4 September 1943, they were arrested a second time. The evening before she left, Elisabeth Ingber and her daughter, among others, urged her to go into hiding. She could go into the attic of my Elisabeth’s house where their parents Jacob and Regina were already hiding. Regina was high German or spoke high German, so she was warned by a German officer, probably an acquaintance of the couple, that there would be a raid the next day where they lived. Charlotta did not want to go into hiding with two small children and so she reported for the second time, but this time voluntarily while the Aktion Iltis took place, at the Dossin Barracks. They were deported in Transport XXII B on 20 September 1943. Her husband Salomon Reinhald survived the war but passed away in Antwerp on 28 November 1944, not even three months after the liberation of Belgium. He died during a V-II bombardment of Antwerp. He is buried at the Antwerp Schoonselhof cemetery grave G-66-7. Both Mélanie and Charlotta did not survive deportation. Their father Jacob Ingber survived the war, but passed away in Antwerp on 10 November 1946. His widow Régina Neubauer died on 8 November 1947. Both Jacob and Régina are buried on the Machsike Hadass cemetery at Putte in the Netherlands. Jacob in Field E row 49 grave 32, Regina grave number unknown but the mother of Regina Neubauer, Claire Schnurer is also buried there in Field H, row 80, grave 18. Jacob Ingber himself was the son of Chija Ingber and Perel Millstein. He had three other siblings: Chil Mayer, Ester and Chaim Joseph. Chil Mayer (also Max) was a student when he came to live with Jacob in Antwerp. He had a son named Maurice with Cecilia Goyvaerts. His second wife was Juliette Cryns. After the death of Chil Mayer, Juliette had a confectionery at Quellinstraat 49 in Antwerp. Elisabeth Ingber and Michael Bolle Van Ham came there sometimes. Later Juliette moved to the coast. Ester Ingber married Isaac Moise Grinbaum. They had four children together: Meyer, Toba, Jankel and Abraham Grinbaum. Jacob’s last sibling was Chaim Joseph Ingber who became a diamond merchant. He married Gitel Saphir with whom he had four children: Léonie, Esther, Jacques-David and Malka Freida (or Anna) Ingber (born on 31 December 1888 in Sandomierz). Esther Ingber married Sigmund Fischer and had two sons with him, Leon Oscar and Isidoor, and one daughter named Juliette Martha. Anna Ingber married Leon (or Leib) Hauser. Leon Hauser, born on 7 January 1885 in Glogów Malopolski, was one of the many children of Chaim Hauser and Malka Altman which also includes: Berta, Max, Wolf, August, Abraham and Yeshayahu. Both the Hausers and the Ingbers had arrived in Belgium via so-called chain migration from Poland. Leon was the first of his siblings to come to Antwerp, in 1907 in Borgerhout. The three Hauser brothers who migrated all landed in the diamond business. Yeshayahu Hauser and his family died in the ghetto of Rzeszów in Poland or later during the war, except for Helena Bau-Hauser who survived. Malka Altman died in 1940 in Rzeszow. Leon Hauser and Anna Ingber had two children: Jacques-David and Flora. It is safe to say they all left the country shortly before the invasion in 1940. Many relatives on the Hauser side of the Hauser-Ingber family left Belgium for the United States or another country in America. Jacques-David, born on 26 February 1910 in Antwerp, married Marion Colman. Together they had two children, Leo and Carl. After the war, the Hausers remained in the United States, although Leon, Anna and Jacques have been back in Antwerp. Part of the Ingber family also remains in Belgium until this day. Leon Hauser died on 4 September 1948. Jacques-David Hauser was killed in a holdup in 1968 carrying diamonds for sale at the beginning of a business trip in the southeastern United States. He had been quite deaf since his twenties and was likely unable to hear what the thieves said to him as they approached.

On 22 March 2022, Mr. Michael Bolle Van Ham kindly permitted Kazerne Dossin to digitise 11 photos in this collection.

Michael Bolle Van Ham