Helen Gordon

Helene Gordon was born in 1940 in Antwerp to parents Natan Perl from Transylvania and Paula née Rotmensz from Poland. Her earliest memories are being in hiding on a farm in Linkebeek outside Brussels and hearing aeroplanes and sirens. Before she came to the farm with “Tante Annie”, her parents paid a young couple to take in Helene. However, when they realised that she was malnourished, they found a new place for their daughter. Her parents in the meantime, were hidden by a man called Vandenstock in Berchem-Sainte-Agathe. After the war, her father went into the diamond business and in 1948 her brother Maurice was born. In 1950 her father and his business partner decided to sell everything and go on Aliyah. They bought a quarry in Israel and stayed until the decline in Helene’s mother’s health made a return to Brussels necessary. After graduating from school, Helene started studying medicine in Brussels but didn’t continue, when she met her future husband, Sydney. She moved with him to London and started studying languages – Italian, German and Russian – at the Polytechnic in Regent Street and later helped with Sydney’s business. Helene visited her parents in Belgium and later took her widowed mother on holidays for her to spend time with Helen’s three children. She also kept in touch with the man and his family who had hidden her parents. Her message for future generations is: “Take things as they come, deal with them as they come.”

Key words: Linkebeek. Berchem-Sainte-Agathe. Brussels. Antwerp. Sighetu Marmatiei, Hungary. Wolbrom, Poland. Rotmensz. Israel. Aliyah. Van Cranenbrock.