Weinreb-Weinreb family. Collection

Majer Weinreb was born on 5 March 1894 in Kopki, Poland, as the son of Israel Weinreb and Ettel Rosenbuth. Majer became a diamond cutter. He married his cousin Rosa Weinreb, who was born in 1893 in Baranow, Poland, as the daughter of Mendel Weinreb and Gitel Hirsch. Majer and Rosa’s two children were also born in Baranow: Scheindla or Sally on 29 November 1921 and Jacob on 6 July 1924. In December 1930, Majer emigrated from Bratislava, Czechoslovakia, to Antwerp, Belgium. In July 1932, he settled at Morpheusstraat 30 in Berchem, where he was joined by his wife and children in January 1933. When Nazi-Germany invaded Belgium on 10 May 1940, the Weinreb-Weinreb family still lived at Morpheusstraat. In the years that followed, they were forced to obey the anti-Jewish decrees introduced by the Nazis. Majer, Rosa and their children Scheindla and Jacob were registered in the municipal Jewish register on 20 December 1940. They had their identity cards stamped with the words ‘Jood-Juif’ in Summer 1941, became members of the Association of Jews in Belgium in April 1942 and wore the yellow Star of David as of June 1942. On 5 August 1942 the German construction company Organisation Todt sent Majer Weinreb to Northern France where he was forced to participate in the construction of the Atlantic Wall. 2250 Jewish men from Belgium shared Majer’s fate. Majer was held at the Boulogne-sur-Mer and Isques labour camps. On 31 October 1942 Majer and most of the other workers in the labour camps in Northern France were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau via transport XVI. Majer did not survive. A few weeks after Majer’s departure, Majer’s wife Rosa, their daughter Scheindla and their son Jacob received an Arbeitseinsatzbefehl, a work order forcing them to present themselves for forced labour ‘in the east’. Although Rosa and Scheindla were ultimately exempted for medical reasons, Jacob reported at the SS-Sammellager Mecheln (Dossin barracks) on 25 August 1942 and was deported from the barracks to Auschwitz-Birkenau via transport VI on 29 August 1942. He did not survive. In January 1943, Rosa and her daughter Scheindla officially moved to Jules Bilmeyerstraat 17 in Berchem, while in reality living in hiding at their old address at Morpheusstraat. Both were arrested on 8 February 1943 and were transferred to the Dossin barracks on 10 February 1943 after being held at the Flemish SS headquarters at Quellinstraat 37 in Antwerp for two days. Rosa and Scheindla were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau via transport XX on 19 April 1943, where they arrived on 22 April 1943. Rosa did not survive. Upon arrival at Auschwitz-Birkenau Scheindla was selected as a forced labourer. The number 42558 was tattooed on her arm. She survived forced labour in Auschwitz, the death marches to Ravensbrück in January 1945 and her subsequent internment at the Malchow concentration camp. Scheindla was liberated by the American army during a death march and was repatriated to Belgium on 23 May 1945, where she learned that her parents and brother had been murdered. Later that year, Scheindla was introduced to Pinkas alias Paul Leiser (also Lesser), a Polish-Jewish man who had fled Belgium in August 1940 and who had joined the American army in 1942. The couple married in 1946, and lived alternately in the United States and in Belgium. Paul and Scheindla had three children: Marcel (1947), Rosette (1949) and Alain (1958).

The wartime documents in this collection were taken from Rosa Weinreb and her daughter Scheindla Weinreb upon their internment in the SS-Sammellager Mecheln (Dossin barracks) on 10 February 1943. The items were stored in the camp administration, but four documents (KD_01021_000013 to KD_01021_000016) were incorrectly filed under the Hamburger family name. After the war, Scheindla herself saved several post-war documents on her parents and brother’s fate in her family archive. Upon Scheindla’s death on 6 May 1983, the items were passed on to her daughter Rosette Lesser (married Wien), and to her granddaughter Valerie Wien. In 1994 the items stored in the archive of the Dossin barracks in 1943 were returned to Rosette and Valerie by the Belgian Ministry of Public Health and Family. The four wrongfully filed documents were returned to Valerie in 2024 by a descendant of the Hamburger family. On 15 April 2024 Rosette and Valerie kindly permitted Kazerne Dossin to digitize the items in this collection.

Rosette Lesser-Wien and Valerie Wien, 2024