Jack Cynamon

Jack Cynamon was born Jacques Cynamon on May 31, 1934 in Brussels Belgium. His father, Icko (1901) was originally from Poland (Biela Podlaska) and had emigrated to Belgium because he didn’t want to enlist in the Russian army. Apparently Russian authorities cut off his thumb when he refused to join up. Jacques’ mother, Rosie Zederbaum was from London and she and her parents had come over to Belgium for health reasons. Jack’s early life in Brussels was unremarkable, his father had a leather goods business and his mother was a milliner. They lived in a house in the centre of Brussels.

Jack’s earliest memory is the German parachutes coming down from the planes in May 1940 and the shooting. Once war started in 1940, the family tried to escape on one of the last trains out of Belgium. They were part of the ‘Grande Exode’. For days they travelled on a train and wherever they stopped people gave food and drink. They ended up in the Pyrenees in France. They returned to Belgium because life seemed to be going on as normal at the beginning of the German occupation of Belgium.

As time went on, anti Jewish legislation went from bad to worse and the family tried unsuccessfully to escape to Spain and Switzerland, but were betrayed at the border and both times had to return to Brussels. In 1942 they decided to go into hiding with the help of the Comite de Defence Juif and one of Icko’s former employees. The family were initially all together in a loft, but it was decided that it was too dangerous to contain an 8 year old boy. Jack remembers the last time he was with his father, walking hand in hand and being handed over to a priest, Father Joseph Andre, who was actively rescuing hundreds of Jewish children. Jack was taken to a convent with other boys and enjoyed life as a choir boy. He has positive memories of his time there. He was in Namur and Serville. He took on the last name of the employee of his father and became Jacques Cnudde.

His parents continued life in hiding together for two years until 1944, when they were found during a house to house search in the street they were hiding. Icko was sent to Mechelen/Maline transit camp and taken from there on the last transport to Auschwitz (1944) where he was murdered. Because Rosie was British she was handed over to the Red Cross and sent to La Bourboule, (Massif Central in France) and stayed in a requisitioned hotel with other nationalities, looked after by the Red Cross. Jack was still in Belgium and had to be evacuated back to Brussels when the Battle of the Bulge was raging.

As soon as France was liberated Rosie made her way back to Brussels, and found Jack, who didn’t remember her and wanted to stay in the convent.They returned to La Bourboule, where Jack had a wonderful time, the location and care was fantastic. From there they went to London via Newhaven and lived first with Rosie’s parents and then found simple lodgings in Stoke Newington.

Although the family were not practising Jews, a promise made to Icko, who was religious, meant that Jack had his bar mitzvah. Jack went to a local mixed secondary school, and after finishing school worked in the leather goods trade went into the army for 2 years and became a salesman before striking out on his own with a partner. Jack’s relationship with his mother was difficult, though he was a dutiful son. Rosie remarried but Jack and her second husband clashed and this impacted the relationship further.

He met and married Norma in 1955 and together they had two children, Debbie and Paul. Debbie sadly died aged 35, of Leukaemia. They have three grandchildren and 1 great-grandchild.

It took Jack 60 years to face his past, he has very little recollections and went on a fact finding mission because another survivor he knew pointed him towards a hidden child convention taking place in the Netherlands. That is where he enquired and found out more about who hid him and what happened to him. Jack lost 13 members of his Belgium family during the Holocaust. During the interview his wife Norma was present, in the background, Jack says she has been his rock and is very supportive. Jack speaks in schools as a Holocaust educator and has a prepared talk, which he reads out at the end of the interview.

Keywords: Belgium/Brussels, Spain, Switzerland, Comite de Defense Juif, hiding, Joseph Andre, convents, Namur, Seville, La Bourboule, Mechelen/Maline transit camp, Battle of the Bulge, London, Stoke Newington, Barnet