Mickey Gliksberg. Collection

Mickey alias Michla Gliksberg was born on 1 January 1925, in Warsaw, Poland, as the daughter of Meyer Gliksberg (born on 3 December 1892 in Siedlce, Poland) and Sura Blumenkranz (born on 1 December 1892 in Kodnie, Poland). Mickey’s parents Meyer and Sura were both Polish nationals and had celebrated their marriage in Warsaw in 1919. Mickey had an older sister named Miriam alias Malka who had been born on 20 December 1920 in Warsaw, and a younger brother named Theo alias Towia who was born on 10 August 1927 in Warsaw. After a failed attempt to settle in Switzerland, Mickey’s father Meyer reached Belgium, officially in March 1930 but more probably in 1929. The rest of the family joined him in July 1930. The Gliksberg-Blumenkranz family lived at Rolwagenstraat 12, above Meyer’s knitwear business. By 1934 they had moved to Stoomstraat 9. Mickey and her siblings were members of the youth movement Betar and of the Maccabi sports club. Mickey’s family also took in two children of Mickey’s maternal uncle and two children of a cousin of Mickey’s mother Sura. Upon the invasion of Belgium by Nazi-Germany on 10 May 1940, the Gliksberg-Blumenkranz family fled to Revel, France. After Mickey’s mother Sura Blumenkranz decided to return to Antwerp, Mickey, her father Meyer and her brother Theo were taken to a refugee camp in Agde, France. Sura then transferred money from Antwerp to Agde, in order to get her husband and two youngest children out of the camp. She received help from Mickey’s sister Miriam who had not travelled to France with her family, but who had headed for Marseilles in the company of her Betar comrades. Miriam was able to visit the camp in Agde, and to obtain her family’s release, after which Mickey, her father Meyer and her brother Theo re-joined Sura in Antwerp in July 1941. Miriam, however, remained in France. She was arrested multiple times, but was able to obtain a visa for Venezuela. She crossed into Spain illegally, was caught and was sent back to France, after which she crossed into Spain legally. She was arrested in Barcelona by the British embassy on suspicion of espionage, but was able to obtain her release and to travel to Venezuela. Her fiancée Maurice Siebenberg, a British national, was in New York and joined her in Latin-America where they built a family. Meanwhile, Mickey, her parents and her brother Theo tried to rebuild their life in Antwerp where they lived at Lange Kievitstraat 73. They were forced to obey the anti-Jewish decrees: the family registered in the municipal Jewish register, had their IDs stamped with the mark “Jood-Juif”, became members of the Association of Jews in Belgium and wore the yellow star of David. In July 1942, Mickey’s father Meyer Gliksman received an order from the Belgian Arbeidsambt [National Work Bureau] to report for labour. On 14 July 1942 Meyer, together with other Jewish men from Antwerp, was deported to Northern France where he was put to work as a slave labourer for the German construction company Organisation Todt. Meyer and the others were housed in labour camps under the worst hygienic circumstances. The men were also severely maltreated. Meyer Gliksberg was deported from the Calais camp in Northern France, via Camiers and Muizen, to Auschwitz-Birkenau on board Transport XVII on 31 October 1942 and was murdered. After Meyer’s departure for Northern France, Mickey, her mother Sura and her brother Theo, moved to Rue Verte 150 in Schaerbeek, Brussels, where Sura tried to revive the family’s knitwear business. However, in autumn 1942 the situation deteriorated. A neighbour, Mrs. Carus, knew someone who could help: Mrs. Maria Feys-Van Herck, the widow of a police commissioner, who lived at Voorspoedstraat 26 in Dilbeek. Maria, who also housed two of her nephews Feys, took in Mickey and Theo, as well as the Jewish teenager Victor Baumgart. On the day of the funeral of Victor’s brother, who had died due to appendicitis, the complete Baumgart family had been arrested during a raid. Victor had avoided capture by hiding in a closet. He was able to reach British mandate Palestine later during the war and survived. Mickey and Theo remained with Maria Feys-Van Herck until Spring 1943. Dilbeek at the time was still a rural area, but a tram connected the municipality to Brussels. Mickey accompanied Maria on outings, while Theo took on a job. Both teenagers were presented as relatives of the Feys family from Flanders. In Spring 1943, Mrs. Carus contacted Fernande Henrard who transferred Mickey to the pensionnat Saint-Charles in Herseaux where other Jewish girls were staying too. Mickey’s Jewish friends in Herseaux included: Fajga ou Fella (Fernande) Witelsohn, Ruth and Ida Aekerman, Edith Grosmann, Edith Maisner, and Helene Appel. After a heavy bombardment on Brussels, Mickey returned home to look for her mother Sura who had remained at their legal address at Rue Verte and then went back to Herseaux . Mickey’s brother Theo was placed with father abbé Joseph André in Namur until 1943, when he was transferred to the Bellevue college in Dinant. Upon Liberation, Mickey was reunited with her mother Sura and brother Theo in Brussels. When Sura wanted to claim her belongings left at their former home in Antwerp, the concierge refused to return anything to her. A long judicial procedure followed. Sura reopened the knitwear shop at Rue Verte in Brussels, which blossomed. In 1948, Mickey married Shimon Wolfstein (alias Simon Avni) whom she had met before the war and whom survived the war working for the British army in British mandate Palestine. The couple emigrated to Israel in 1948 and had two children together. Mickey’s siblings Miriam and Theo also both had children. In 1970 a stele was erected in Israel to commemorate Meyer Gliksberg. The Gliksberg-Blumenkranz family remained in contact with Maria Feys-Van Herck who was awarded the title of Righteous amongst the Nations in 1996, and Mickey visited the nuns of the pensionnat Saint-Charles in Herseaux multiple times after the war. The children of Mickey and Theo are strongly involved in honouring the memory of abbé Joseph André, a Righteous among the Nations, as well. Mickey’s mother Sura Blumenkranz passed away in 1979, Mickey in 2015.

On 18 January 2024 dr. Freddy Avni, son of Mickey Gliksberg, kindly permitted Kazerne Dossin to digitise the documents and photos from his family archive.

Dr. Freddy Avni, son of Mickey Gliksberg