Safar-ova family. Collection

Josef Safar (born in 1888) and his wife Riwka (Regina) Berkowicz (born in 1895) had ten children: Malka, Dov (Bernard), Szmuel, Roza, Fani (Frantiska), Wolf Hersch, Schlomo, Ester, David and Frieda. The family lived in Sinovir in the Czechoslovakian countryside (today Synevyr in Ukraine), and was very religious. Father Josef ran a small farm and transported goods over the Carpathian mountains. In May 1938, daughter Roza Safar-ova (born on 12 May 1917) emigrated to Belgium. She settled in Antwerp where she was joined by her younger sister Frantiska (born on 18 April 1920) and their cousin Ruzena Safar-ova (born on 21 September 1919) six months later. Most of their relatives who remained in Czechoslovakia – including Josef and Riwka Safar-Berkowicz, and their children Malka (married to Bernard Yankovich), Wolf Hersch, Schlomo, Ester, David and Frieda – were murdered during the Holocaust. In Belgium, Roza, Frantiska and Ruzena Safar-ova tried to build a new life. Frantiska earned a living, working as a nanny for the family of Jewish teacher Icek Chodos. Roza worked as servant and a kosher kitchen aid in the household of Samuel Obstfeld. Ruzena also found employment as a member of the household staff of the Wolf-Stein family. When Nazi Germany invaded Belgium on 10 May 1940, the girls still lived in Antwerp, but not at the same address. When they were forced to register in the municipal Jewish register at the end of 1940, Roza lived at De Boeystraat 7, Frantiska at Belgiëlei 48 and Ruzena at Magdalenastraat 44. On 12 February 1941, the three of them became part of the more than 3000 foreigners (mainly Jews) forcefully relocated from Antwerp to the province of Limburg. Some 30 single, young Jewish women were housed in the Terlaemen castle in Zolder. Polish-Jewish Frieda (officially Paja) Buchhalter took charge of the group and inspired the Safar-ova girls to join the communist resistance. On 16 July 1941, the Jewish women sent to the castle in Zolder were allowed to return to Antwerp. While Roza and Ruzena moved in together at Plantin en Moretuslei 126, Frantiska returned as a maid to the household of Russian diamond merchant Maurice Jakobowitz at Belgiëlei 48. Only in May 1942 did she move in with her sister and cousin at Plantin en Moretuslei. Meanwhile, the three girls were forced to obey additional anti-Jewish decrees. In the Summer of 1941, for example, they had their identity cards stamped with the words ‘Jood-Juif’. In the Summer of 1942 the Safar-ova girls sought rapprochement with the resistance as suggested by Frieda Buchhalter. Since their return from Limburg, they had become members of Revolutionaire Volksjeugd [Revolutionary People's Youth], a communist youth organisation with ties to the resistance. Mid-August 1942, a work order was issued for Roza and Frantiska: they were ordered by the Nazis to report themselves at the Dossin Barracks to "go to work in the East". However, these letters could not be delivered. The sisters had gone into hiding and had joined the Armed Partisans. Their colleagues from the resistance provided them with new living quarters, and in the years that followed they had to change addresses quite often. Frantiska took on the false name Marie Louise De Graeve, and lived alone in a rented room, while her sister Roza was housed by a family in Antwerp. Their cousin Ruzena survived the war in Leuven, where she was living with an elderly lady while working in the Marie Thumas factory under a false name. As members of the armed resistance, Roza and Frantiska Safar-ova transported hand grenades and explosives, dismantled machine guns, shadowed collaborators and conveyed messages between leaders of the resistance. Roza presumably also actively participated in the commission of sabotage actions in Antwerp's Drinkstraat, Lange Beeldekensstraat and Carnotstraat. Finally, it was also Roza who took in and nursed her division commander, Simon Israel Helfgott, when the latter was wounded during a firefight in early 1943 - a few months before he was killed during the assassination of a Flemish collaborator near the Antwerp Sportpaleis. The courier services performed by the Safar-ova sisters transcended the borders of Antwerp: there were also contacts with colleagues from Ghent, Brussels, Leuven... Things got hot under their feet when Rebecca Schumiliver (pseudonym Paula) was arrested on 8 June 1943. Rebecca was Frantiska's roommate and also worked for the resistance. Upon her arrest, Rebecca carried a list of names of resistance fighters. Frantiska was also wanted, but by changing addresses several times, she stayed out of the hands of the Nazis, as did Roza. The sisters survived the war in Antwerp and were reunited after Liberation with their colleague Rebecca Schumiliver, who survived several concentration camps including Ravensbrück, and with their cousin Ruzena Safar-ova. After the war the Safar-ova women temporarily lived together at Tulpstraat 66 in Antwerp before building their own families. On 13 December 1944, a few months after Liberation, Frantiska married resistance fighter Emile Normon with whom she had two daughters. In 1950 Roza married Herman Horn, with whom she had a son and a daughter. In 1952 Ruzena married Menachem Kliger, with whom she had a daughter. Frantiska and Roza both passed away in 2012, Ruzena around 2008.

On 6 March 2024 Regina Normon, daughter of Frantiska Safar-ova, kindly donated the original photos and documents in this collection to Kazerne Dossin (images KD_01018_000001 to KD_01018_000016). The digital copies of the other documents and photos were donated by Mrs. Normon's cousin Jacques Horn.

Regina Normon and Jacques Horn, 2024