Weissblum-Wachspress family

David Weissblum was born in Tarnow, Poland, on 30 October 1911. He became a furrier. On 5 July 1936 he married Giza alias Gitel Wachspress, who was born in Tarnow on 15 December 1916. In July 1939 David and Giza fled to Belgium where Giza had relatives. The couple settled at Guldenvliesstraat 18, awaiting their visa to emigrate. In January 1940, they moved to Rudolfstraat 64 where they still resided when Nazi-Germany invaded Belgium on 10 May 1940. David and Giza fled to France and reached the rural village Saint-Pierreville. At the end of 1940, receiving news that the situation in Belgium wasn’t all that bad, they decided to return to Antwerp. Since Jews were not allowed to return to Belgium they had to cross the French-Belgian border clandestinely. When arriving in Antwerp in January 1941 their landlord had emptied their apartment and had sold all their belongings. David and Giza then settled at Jacob Jordaensstraat 7. Giza took on a job working as a volunteer in a refuge for the Jewish poor run by the Ezra aid society in Antwerp. Meanwhile David and Giza were forced to obey the anti-Jewish decrees. They registered in the municipal Jewish register of Antwerp in February 1941. When asked to help distribute illegal newspapers smuggled from Brussels to Antwerp by their neighbour Eva Fastag, David and Giza got involved in clandestine activities. On 18 December 1941 Giza gave birth to a baby boy named Simon, but she and David continued to deliver pamphlets, hiding the prints in their son’s stroller. In July 1942, to avoid being claimed as a forced labourer, David Weissblum moved from Terliststraat 14 in Antwerp to Boulevard Jacques Bertrand 75 in Charleroi where he worked for the Belgian railroad company. In Charleroi, David also started printing clandestine newspapers for the Front de l’Indépendance [Independent Front]. In addition, he collected funds for Solidarité, in support of families of victims of the Nazis. Once a week David visited his wife Giza and son Simon in Antwerp. In August 1942, Giza and David placed their son Simon in hiding with the Ecran-Petri family in Oelegem. Giza subsequently officially joined the Front de l’Indépendance. Under the false identity of Hélène Janssens she became a liaison officer for ‘Piet’, one of the leading men of the movement in Antwerp. In parallel Giza also helped Jewish friends in hiding, while visiting her son at the Ecran-Petri family during the night. Upon his request, Giza introduced eldest son Louis Ecran to members of the resistance. Sadly, Louis was arrested and executed on 3 September 1943. In 1943, when her commanding officer ‘Piet’ decided that it was too dangerous for her in Antwerp, Giza joined David in Charleroi. David and Giza subsequently moved their son Simon from the Ecran-Petri family in Oelegem to the house of Alphonse and Emilie Gonsette in Gosselies, north of Charleroi. David and Giza continued their resistance activities while living in hiding at the house of Julia Baudelet at Chaussée de Bruxelles 120 in Lodelinsart. Giza joined the armed partisans and became the liaison officer of ‘Robert’ under the false name Yvette. On 9 July 1943 she was arrested at the Chaussée de Gilly in Charleroi on her way to ‘Raymond’, the replacement of ‘Robert’. Giza was held by members of the local Sipo and at the Sipo-SD headquarters at Avenue Louise in Brussels, where she was tortured. Admitting to being Jewish but not telling anything about her resistance activities, Giza was transferred to the Dossin barracks from where she was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau via Transport XXI on 31 July 1943. Upon arrival she was selected as a forced labourer. The number 51964 was tattooed on her arm. At Birkenau, Giza was taken care of by her relative Mala Zimetbaum, who was a key figure in the resistance amongst the female prisoners in the camp. Giza survived the death march to Ravensbrück in February 1945 and was sent to Malchow in March 1945. On 1st April 1945 she arrived in Leipzig where she had to work in a weapons factory. Giza was liberated by Soviet troops on 23 April and was repatriated to Belgium on 3 June. Upon the Liberation of Belgium, David Weissblum and his son Simon were reunited. They remained with Julia Baudelet at Chaussée de Bruxelles 120 in Lodelinsart while awaiting news from Giza. They were reunited in Charleroi upon Giza’s repatriation after which the Gonsette family, who rescued Simon, took them in. In 1949 David, Giza and Simon emigrated to Israel. Simon Weissblum married and built a family.

The Ecran-Petri family received and kept several photos of Simon Weissblum and his parents David and Giza Weissblum-Wachspress during and after the war. These items were handed down to daughter-in-law Rita Adriaenssens, who, on behalf of the Ecran-Petri family, kindly shared digital copies with Kazerne Dossin in 2022. Rita contacted Kazerne Dossin via author Pieter Serrien after reading his biography of Eva Fastag in which the Ecran-Petri family is referenced as rescuers of Simon Weissblum.

Ecran-Petri family, 2022