Reisdorf-Eskenazi family. Collection

Joseph Reisdorf, he himself non-Jewish, was born in Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, Belgium, on 16 August 1904. He studied medicine in Paris, France, specialising in tropical diseases, and then served as a lieutenant in the medical corps in the Belgian Congo in the 1920s. Joseph returned to Belgium in 1926 and led an army medical unit during the 18 Days’ campaign. An attempt to reach England to join the Belgian army in November 1940 failed. In 1942, Joseph found an abandoned back building at Rue d'Or 44 in Brussels where he set up a secret medical centre which operated until November 1944. There he treated work refusers, political opponents of the Nazis and resistance fighters as well as hidden Jews. Israel Ezra Natan was responsible for transferring patients to a safe place after treatment and for delivering food and other supplies to the clinic. The network became known as the Organisation sanitaire belge resistante - Belgische gezondheidsweerstandsorganisatie" (OSBR) [Resilient Belgian health organization] or the "Brigade Rey". In the basement of the building, Joseph also hid personal documents, such as passports, of members of the Union européenne des Juifs turcs en Belgique [European association of Turkish Jews in Belgium]. Refusing to be sent to Germany as a forced labourer himself, Joseph also had to go into hiding. His parents, when questioned, lied to the Nazi authorities, stating that their son had never returned from the Belgian Congo. Joseph Reisdorf also hid Jews in his clinic at Rue d'Or 44. Among them was Clara, alias Claire Eskenazi. Claire was born in Constantinople, in the Ottoman Empire, on 5 February 1909. At the age of 16 months, she arrived in Belgium with her parents, Baruch Eskenazi and Allegra Alfandari, and her older brother Habib aka Robert Eskenazi. Clara's two younger sisters, Corinne and Victorine, were both born in Brussels. The Eskenazi-Alfandari family was of Turkish and Jewish origin. The father Baruch was a carpet manufacturer. Clara became a steno typist in a shop in Brussels. She met Joseph Reisdorf in 1937 or 1938 at a ball in the Terkamerenbos (Bois de la Cambre) in Brussels. After the invasion of Belgium by Nazi Germany in May 1940, the Eskenazi-Alfandari family was forced to obey the anti-Jewish decrees. They registered in the municipal Jewish register in December and, at about the same time, Claire lost her job because of her Jewish affiliation. Son Robert was captured in May 1940 in France and was interned in Saint-Cyprien but managed to escape and return to Belgium. From July 1942, Joseph Reisdorf hid Claire, her parents Baruch and Allegra, her brother Robert, her sister Victorine, her sister Corinne, Corinne's husband Leon de Sotil and their daughter Jenny de Sotil. Joseph provided Claire with a false identity and a nurse's uniform, after which she helped Joseph in his clandestine hospital. On 15 May 1944, Baruch, Allegra, Victorine and Robert Eskenazi were arrested in Molenbeek. They were transferred to the Dossin barracks in Mechelen on 3 June 1944. Robert Eskenazi, being married to a non-Jewish Belgian woman, was released on 3 August 1944. In July 1944, an official of the Ministry of Justice, who was also a member of the OSBR, was able to have Baruch, Allegra and Victorine’s names stricken from the deportation list of transport XXVI, keeping them at the Dossin barracks when this train left for Auschwitz-Birkenau. After his release from the Dossin barracks, Robert Eskenazi informed his sister Claire and Joseph Reisdorf of the family's arrest. Joseph tried to obtain their release in vain: On the morning of 2 September 1944, he put on his military uniform, took his weapon and travelled to Mechelen, accompanied by Claire in her nurse's outfit. Joseph left Claire at the café opposite the Dossin barracks and presented himself at 4.30 a.m. at the guardhouse of the camp as an officer of the International Red Cross. Joseph then claimed to have come to put the barracks under Red Cross protection in view of the American advance and the German debacle. Not speaking any German, he went for it on the sly. The Nazis left the barracks in the night of 3 to 4 September 1944. During the liberation of Brussels, Joseph provided medical assistance to wounded soldiers and civilians. A few days later, he participated in the transfer of the Jews liberated at the Dossin barracks to Brussels, including the Eskenazi family, all of whom survived the war. Joseph then established a medical practice. He married Claire Eskenazi in 1948 and settled in Brussels. They had two daughters: Liliane and Huguette. In 1954, Joseph Reisdorf was awarded the title of Civil Resistance fighter by the Belgian Ministry of Reconstruction for having saved 559 Jews left at the Dossin barracks. Claire died in 1968, Joseph in 1989. In 2003, he was recognised as Righteous Among the Nations. In 2005, a tree was planted in his honour in Israel.

In 2022 Liliane Reisdorf, daughter of Joseph Reisdorf and Clara Eskenazi, kindly permitted Kazerne Dossin to digitise the objects and documents in this collection from her family archive. She also donated the original commamorative flag to the museum and provided the research centre with additional information such as her family tree and a copy of the research requests filed at the Nationa Archives of Belgium - Archives Service for War Victims and at the municipal archives in Brussels. A digital copy of all items as well as a photo of the flag was shared with the Jewish Museum of Belgium in Brussels. In 2023 Liliane Reisdorf, daughter of Joseph Reisdorf and Clara Eskenazi, kindly permitted Kazerne Dossin to also digitise the photos from her family archive. A copy was again shared with the Jewish Museum of Belgium.

Liliane Reisdorf, 2022