Johannes Brans and Bertha Mertens. Collection.

Contact Kazerne Dossin Documentation Centre: archives@kazernedossin.eu Judith Sylvia Dachinger was born in Gmünden, Austria, in 1937. The following year her parents, Aron Dachinger and Jochwed Rapaport, fled to Belgium. In the fall of 1942, Aron and Jochwed contacted Le Centrale, a Jewish welfare organisation in Antwerp, to hide their daughter Judith Sylvia. She was placed with Johannes Brans and his wife Bertha Mertens, whom learned Judith Sylvia to speak Dutch and whom treated the girl as a member of their own family. Aron Dachinger did not survive deportation from the Dossin barracks via transport I, but Judith Sylvia was reunited with her mother Jochwed Rapaport who had survived the war by hiding in a convent. Judith Sylvia Dachinger and her mother migrated to the United States, but they remained in contact with Johannes Brans and Bertha Mertens until their death in 1975 and 1989. In 2006 Yad Vashem recognised Johannes Brans and Bertha Mertens as Righteous among the Nations. This collection contains a copy of the speeches regarding the rescue activities of Johannes Brans and Bertha Mertens (and of the following Belgian rescuers who were honored on the same day : Charles and Alida Pontus, Marie Suymens, Anne-Marie Suymens, Jean-François and Florentine Suymens, Philippe and Marie-Thérèse Culot); copies of five certificates signed by the Belgian state regarding the resistance activities of Johannes Brans and his wife Bertha Mertens; proclamation of recognition by the embassy of Israel and Yad Vashem.