Silberman-Holzer family. Collection

Efraim Silberman was born in Iwla, Poland, on 14 December 1901 as the son of Josef Silberman and Malka Teitelbaum. In 1921 Efraim settled in Berlin where he earned a living as a salesman and a decorator of shop windows. On 3 January 1928 he arrived in Antwerp on a tourist visa to visit his brother, who was ill and who lived in the port city. However, upon arrival Efraim immediately requested a permanent residence permit which was granted to him. Efraim settled at Uitbreidingstraat 223 in Berchem, only to move to Draakstraat 39 in Antwerp a few weeks later. He learned the trade of diamond cleaver and, by October 1930, lived at Zillebekelaan 13 in Berchem. In Antwerp, Efraim met Euga alias Augusta Holzer who had been born in Dukla, Poland, on 18 July 1906 as the daughter of Elias Holzer and Chaja alias Helena Kolber. Euga, her parents and her siblings had arrived in Belgium in 1907. During the First World War the family had fled to the Netherlands. In 1919 they returned to Antwerp where Euga’s father passed away in 1930. Efraim and Euga married in Berchem on 26 May 1931 and lived temporarily at Generaal Capiaumontstraat 40 before settling at Thaliastraat 30. The couple’s eldest daughter, Anna Esther alias Annie Silberman, was born in Antwerp on 30 October 1932. Youngest daughter Myriam was born in the port city on 9 August 1938. Efraim, Augusta and the children still lived at Thaliastraat 30 when Nazi-Germany invaded Belgium on 10 May 1940. By that time Efraim had become a diamond dealer. On 11 or 12 May 1940 the family attempted to flee south, travelling with Augusta’s eldest sister Gitel alias Gisele Holzer, her husband Tobias Borgenicht and their children Abraham Isaak and Mina, and Augusta’s youngest sister Bertha Holzer, her husband Nuchim Hollander and their daughter Blanche. Efraim and Augusta’s youngest child Myriam continuously cried while on route. When the train halted, the family got off to find some milk for the child. The train then left without the Silberman-Holzer family which was forced to return to Antwerp, soon followed by the other members of the Holzer family. The only ones who made it to southern France were those who travelled separately: Augusta’s mother Helena Kolber and Augusta’s brother Johenen Wolf Holzer with his family. They took up residency in Luchon, France, where they survived the war. Back in Antwerp the Silberman-Holzer family was forced to obey the anti-Jewish decrees. On 18 December 1940 Efraim registered his family in the municipal Jewish register and on 6 April 1942 they became members of the Association of Jews in Belgium. Between June and September 1942 the Nazis deported over 2250 Jewish men from Belgium to Northern France as forced labourers for Organisation Todt. Efraim obeyed the work order and presented himself “voluntarily” for labour as the men were told that, in exchange, their families would be left in peace. Efraim was deported to Northern France and performed forced labour at the Dannes and Condette work camps, before being deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau via transport XVI on 31 October 1942. However, Efraim was able to jump from the train en route and to return to Antwerp where he found his family home empty. During his absence Augusta had placed the children with Marie, Augusta’s domestic help, until Augusta had found them all a hiding place. The girls stayed with Marie for two to three weeks, until Augusta came into contact with Charles Ollinger, a teacher at a technical institute in Mons, who had been made aware of their situation via Ben Govaerts, a non-Jewish teacher at the Jewish Tachkemoni school attended by several of Efraim and Augusta’s relatives. Govaerts was also connected to Josef Sterngold, one of the Antwerp leaders of the Jewish Defence Committee, the largest hiding network in Belgium. Charles Ollinger found a hiding place for Augusta and her daughters as well as for Augusta’s sister Bertha Holzer, her husband Nuchim Hollander and their daughter Blanche on a small farm in Frameries. Upon Efraim Silberman’s escape from transport XVI and his return to Antwerp some of Efraim’s neighbors contacted Charles Ollinger who went to the port city to pick him up and who reunited him with his wife and children in Mons. After three months in hiding it become too dangerous at the farm. Charles Ollinger moved both families to a small house located at rue Léon Save 4 in Mons. The women and children were presented as Flemish speaking refugees from Ostend. False identities were provided to them. Augusta Holzer-Silberman became misses Steurs, while Bertha Holzer-Hollander became misses D’Hollander. The false papers were delivered via Odon Dubois, a clerk at the municipality in Mons. The men – Efraim and Nuchim – were hidden in the back rooms and were not allowed to go out or to be seen or heard. Annie and Myriam Silberman both attended local schools. The small castle across from the house where the families lived housed the Kommandantur, the local German headquarters. One day, Myriam played on the steps of the castle when a German soldier stroke her head and said: “Schönes Kind.” [Beautiful child.] After that, her mother Augusta explained to Myriam that she should not play there anymore. The families experienced the liberation of Mons on 2 September 1944. The battle of the Bulge forced them to leave Mons for a while, but they returned after the formal liberation of Belgium and even organized a Pesach Seder party for the allied Jewish soldiers in Mons. Efraim, Augusta and the children then returned to Antwerp, where Efraim resumed his business as a diamond dealer. Myriam attended classes at the Jewish Tachkemoni school, Annie at the Atheneum for girls in Antwerp. In 1953, the Silberman-Holzer family went to Israel to help Efraim’s brother in his business. In 1957 they returned to Antwerp where Efraim continued to work in the diamond trade. After many long years of procedures conducted by lawyers, Efraim and Augusta were granted Belgian citizenship. Being born in Belgium, Myriam was given the opportunity to choose Belgian nationality. Annie, who was living in France, became a French national. Both girls married and built families. Myriam today lives in Brussels, Annie in Strasbourg, France. In 1971 their rescuer, Charles Ollinger, received the title of Righteous amongst the Nations for the rescue of eighteen members of the Holzer family. Odon Dubois who provided them with false IDs received the title in 1998. This collection contains: an audio-visual testimony by Myriam Silberman in which she recounts her life during the war, including the experiences of her father Efraim Silberman who was sent to a work camp in Northern France run by Organisation Todt and who escaped transport XVI taking him to Auschwitz-Birkenau, the help Myriam, her sister Anna alias Annie Silberman and their mother Euga alias Augusta Holzer received from their former housekeeper Marie in Antwerp and from Righteous amongst the Nations Charles Ollinger and Odon Dubois who hid the family in Mons under the false name “Steurs”, life in hiding in the company of Myriam’s maternal aunt Bertha Holzer, her uncle Nuchim Hollander and her cousin Blanche Hollander, and Myriam’s recollection of bombardments on the city ; five photos, including a pre-war photo of Euga alias Augusta Holzer and her two sisters Bertha and Gitel alias Gisele Holzer, a wartime photo of Myriam Silberman at school in Mons, a photo of the Silberman-Holzer and Hollander-Holzer families posing in front of the house in Mons where they were hidden, a post-war photo of Silberman-Holzer relatives and allied soldiers taken during the Pesach Seder organised in Mons after Liberation, a post-war photo of Myriam Silberman taken upon her return to Antwerp in 1945 ; a bound photocopy of the wartime and post-war correspondence between Righteous amongst the Nations Charles Ollinger and several of the people he saved, including the Silberman-Holzer family ; a bundle of speeches from the inauguration in 1994 of a commemorative plaque dedicated to the memory of Charles Ollinger; a bundle of speeches from the 1998 Righteous amongst the Nations ceremony in honour of Odon Dubois ; a newspaper clipping from 1999 telling the story of Charles Ollinger and Odon Dubois, Righteous amongst the Nations ; a testimony written by Anna alias Annie Silberman, in which she recounts the story of the Silberman-Holzer family in Belgium during the occupation. Contact Kazerne Dossin Research Centre: archives@kazernedossin.eu