Anna Teitelbaum. Collection

Anna Teitelbaum was born in Antwerp on 5 December 1931 as the youngest of four children of the Jewish diamond merchant Chaim Teitelbaum and his catholic wife Victorina De Ridder. Anna attended classes at a local primary school (Stedelijk Onderwijsgesticht voor meisjes nr. 1) at Lange Leemstraat, where she had several Jewish classmates. When Nazi-Germany invaded Belgium on 10 May 1940, the Teitelbaum family lived at Spillemansstraat 12 in Borgerhout, Antwerp. Although Anna's father had to register in the municipal Jewish register in 1940 and although he had the words "Jood-Juif" stamped on his ID card in Spring 1941 the Teitelbaum children, because of their non-Jewish mother, were exempted from measures such as the exclusion of Jewish pupils from non-Jewish schools and such as wearing the yellow Star of David. Anna was thus able to continue her normal life during the war although her brother Sam Teitelbaum joined the resistance and her brother-in-law Herman Bronkhorst (husband of Anna's eldest sister Helena Teitelbaum) was sent to Northern France as a slave labourer for Organisation Todt. Herman Bronkhorst was able to escape from a hospital in Saint-Omer, France, where he was treated after being abused, after which he went into hiding on a farm near Antwerp, Belgium. He was, however, caught and sent to the SS-Sammellager Mechelen, the Dossin barracks. Anna's mother Victorina De Ridder was able to obtain Herman’s release by producing false documents regarding Herman’s falsified non-Jewish parentage for which she received help from a lawyer, the father of Anna’s best friend in school Eliane Russinger. Anna, Herman and all other Teitelbaum family members survived the war.

Anna Teitelbaum was interviewed by Dorien Styven, archivist at Kazerne Dossin, on 28 September 2022. Misses Teitelbaum also kindly permitted Kazerne Dossin to digitise three school photos and several pages of her personal poetry album.

Anna Teitelbaum, 2022