Jacques Weisser BEM

Jacques Weisser, born February 1942 in Antwerp, was the second child of Martha Mandelbaum and Jacob “Kuba” Weisser. When the Germans occupied Belgium, his parents fled to the south of France where his sister Lea died of meningitis in a hospital in Mâcon in 1941. 

For some reason his parents returned to Belgium where Jacques was born. He does not know details about his mother or his own early life. His father who survived the Holocaust did not talk much to Jacques about it. His father was sent as a slave labourer for “Organisation Todt” to build the Atlantic Wall. His mother Martha was sent to Malines (Flemish: Mechelen) in September 1942 and from there to Auschwitz. Years later Jacques got a rare photo of her that most likely was taken in Malines.

Jacques suspects that an unknown individual—maybe a neighbour – brought Jacques to Meisjeshuis children’s home after his mother’s deportation. An agreement with between Belgian officials and the Gestapo meant that Jewish orphans under the age of five were exempt from deportation. In late 1942 Jacques and other young children were taken to the Sint Erasmus hospital to be hidden there. After hiding there for about 18 months, Jacques and another boy – Bernhard Baron, who will feature later in Jacques’ testimony – were found by the Gestapo and sent to an orphanage called Baron de Castro in Brussels. It seems that in August 1944 when it was clear that Germany would eventually lose the war, the Nazis decided to send the last orphans to Mechelen transit camp. The Belgian resistance prevented that by taking the children to hiding places and Jacques was hidden in the Ardennes where his father found him after having survived several camps, slave labour and a death march.

Jacques lived with his father and his step-siblings, until he joined his uncle and aunt in Wembley in 1951 for health reasons. They emigrated to Rhodesia and he spent the rest of his school years there. In 1959 he went on Aliyah with Betar. He started training with the Tadmore Hotel to become a hotel receptionist and worked in this field subsequently where he met many interesting people and which suited his outgoing personality. In 1967 he met his future wife Judy and they moved to Radlett in Hertfordshire and Jacques started a career in retail property.  When he retired, he volunteered for and moved up to executive director of the Association of Jewish Ex-Servicemen and Women for many years. He is also a UK trustee of Yad Vashem.

In 2021 a Dutch law student, Reinier Heinsman, as part of his research found files and photos showing children in the Meisjeshuis orphanage in Antwerp. He made it his mission to find and reunite them more than 75 later and compile their accounts into a book. Unrelated to him Maria Isabel Alvarez Cuartero who bought the house where the Baron de Castro nursery had been situated, began research into the Shoah in Belgium and started contacting the children who were in this orphanage.

And this is how Jacques and Bill Frankenstein – née Bernard Baron- found each other again after being orphans together almost 80 years ago in the Meisjeshuis. They first met on zoom and with other former orphans until their reunion was captured on TV.

Bill and Jacques consider it their legacy to tell their story -the truth about the Holocaust – for future generations.

Key words:

Antwerp. Weisser. Mandelbaum. Malines. Mechelen. Meisjeshuis. Baron de Castro nursery. Saint-Raphael. Maria Isabel Alvarez Cuartero. Reinier Heinsman. Salisbury and Bulawayo,Rhodesia. “Polar First” fur shop in Salisbury. Betar. Gar’in beit. Amatziah. Tadmore Hotel. Galei Kinneret in Tiberias. AJEX. BEM. Bill Frankenstein.