Figure 1.--Here we see Mr. Goldstein with his two sons in Belgium. The photograph was taken during te German occupation. Notice how he is carrying his briefcase. He was using it cover his Star of David badge. Regulations in Belgium did not require younger children to wear the badges. |
The Goldstein story is typical of the 25 accounts of hidden children assembeled by Howard Greenfield in his book The Hidden Children. Jack and Bobby’s family had to trust strangers to take care of their sons and hide them so that they might survive the NAZI Holocaust. The righteous strangers made it possible for two boys to be delivered from out of the evil that was Hitler’s New Order. The Goldstein's were Austrian Jews leading a normal, comfortable life in Vienna. After the Anchsluss managed to get to Belgium. The boys were almost picked up in a raid. After this Father Bruno arranged to hide them in a convent.
Jack’s father owned a textile firm and the family had a very comfortable life in Austria. Jack was 3 years old when Hitler with the NAZIs carried out the Anchsluss annexing Austria in 1938.
The Goldstein’s after the Anchsluss realised that they must leave Austria and applied to immigrate to America. They hoped to do this by going first to Belgium. They settled in Brussels in 1939. The plan to go to America was unsuccessful because World War II started in September 1939. In May 1940 Jack’s father was arrested just when the Germans invaded. Ironically the Belguim police. believed that he was a German spy. He was sent to an internment camp and was there for 14 months. He managed to escape in August 1941 and get back to his family. After he was arrested and the German invasion began, the family tried to escape to England.
It was the time of Dunkirk. The British Expeditionary Force and French forces were being evacuated from the beaches of Dunkirk. Jack’s mother ftantic without her husband decided to try to escape with the British withdrawal. Five year old Jack, his brother's aunt and mother made their escape. A truck driver was to take them but his aunt’s papers were not in order. He took them part of the way but they left the lorry and made their way to Dunkirk on foot. It was a hot horrendous journey. There was nothing to eat or drink. At night they slept in refugee shelters. Jack’s brother cried throughout the night. Jack says it was a terrible time. Their walk to freedom ended when they found out that only soldiers were being evacuated and not civilians. There was nothing else they could do but return to Brussels.
There were about 90,000-100,000 Jews in Belgium at the time World War II broken out in Europe, many were foreign Jews that had already fled the NAZIS from their own countries. During the first months of the occupation, thousands of Jews, especially foreign Jews, fled from Belgium or were deported to neighboring France. As a result, as of late 1940 about 52,000-55,000 Jews remained in Belgium. Hitler apparently had no marked plans for Belgium in the NAZI "New Order" in Europe. This thus had a marked effect on the administration that the Germans established in Belgium. NAZI suppression of Jews in Belgium followed a familar pattern. The NAZIs issued the first anti-Jewish measures in the Fall 1940. These measures suceeded in robbing Belgian Jews of their property. Inpoverished and concentrated it cities, they were now ready for the next step, transport east and the death camps. The killing of Dutch, Belgian, and French Jews began in July 1942 when the Polish death camps became fully operational. Most accounts suggest that the NAZI anti-Semetic campaign which began soon after the occupation had little impact on most Belgians. It was virtually impossible to contront the NAZIs openly. Many Belgians, however, quierly and effectively opposed the NAZIs quiettly and effectively. One author explain that it was these "slent rebels" that saved many Belgian Jews. Belgian clerics were some of the most effective in Europe in helping to rescue the country's Jewish population. The most notable cleric was Father Bruno who saved hundreds of children. There was only so much the Resistance could do in Belgium. Unlike Denmark there was no easy to get to sanctuary. The English Channel and North Sea is difficult waters. mined, and heavily patrolled by the Germans. The NAZIs succeeded in killing about 25,000 Jews who were living in Belgium. Here accounts vary. Some are as high as 40,000. Only 1,271 survived and retuned after the War. Despite the appaling total, the number of Jews saved is a testimony to the support of the Belgian people to their non-Jewish countrymen.
Jack’s father came home in 1941 after having escaped from an internment camp. He lived with his family and worked in a local factory. There is a photograph of Jack and his twin brother walking with their father along a street, probably in 1941 or 42 (figure 1). The scene shows a happy family going about their city without [?let] or hindrance. Something pleased Jack that day because he has a smile on his face. Maybe it’s his mum saying something humorous while she took the photograph. Bobby, his brother, is holding his fathers hand. They lived near Dunkirk. There father worked as an engineer in a key factory. It was touch and go. This provided some security, but the NAZIs not uncommonly arrested and deported Jews even with valuable skills. There was a lot of fear for their freedom was on a knife edge.
The NAZIs began the round ups and deportations in 1942. One day their father went off to work as usual. Their mother, for whatever reason, was out of the apartment. Jack and Bobby were alone at home. It was the day the authorities aided by the local Jewish informer raided the apartment block, searching and arresting Jewish people the informer pointed out. They were now 7-year-old boys and scared to death that they would be arrested and taken away. They thought of the terror their mother would feel when she came back and found the boys gone. Jack thought quickly. He remembered that his father had a certificate exempting him from being arrested. The boys found this document and showed it. They were not arrested. This incident and many more brought a realisation that if the boys were to survive they must go into hiding. Their father's job did not protect his family and despite his job even he would eventually be arrested and deported.
Life only got really difficult for them towards the end of the war. It was early 1944 when Jack and Bobby’s parents finally decided to hide them. This was no easy decision because the boys would travel without their parents. They would be in the care of strangers. There would be no policeman to ask for help in an emergency. They would be alone and helpless in the hands of strangers who they would have to trust completely. This was a terrifying ordeal for two 8-year-old boys. They had to travel far away from home to their hiding place.
The boys were fortunate because they were in the care of a kindly caring Belgium monk called Pere Bruno. He was responsible for helping 400 children and 100 adults escape deportation. Jack and Bobby met Pere Bruno at the railway station.
The boy’s youthful wonderment of train travel and the reassurance of Pere Bruno were factors that made their ordeal bearable. The train journey was one Jack never forgot. He and his brother had never been on a train and they loved the opportunity to travel on one. The boys played games throughout the journey. They climbed onto the luggage rack. The boys even played hide and seek. On retelling the events about the escape journey Jack was amazed at Pere Bruno’s tolerance to let them play in such a boisterous way rather than keeping them quite because of the seriousness of the journey. Maybe quite boys would have made people more aware of their presence than two mischievous children displaying boyish behaviour
Figure 2.--This photograph was taken at the convent. It is not possible to tell Jack and Bobby apart from the other children in the photograph. Jack is standing in front of the second lady on the right. Bobby is standing in front of him. It is a picture of happiness. Other boys have their arms round each other and lots of the children are smiling. It is like lots of other happy school pictures with the exception that its secret is that two of children are hiding from their Nazi persecutors. |
Jack is not sure were they got off the train but after the train journey Pere Bruno took them to the home of a doctor. They stayed for the night. It was after the evening meal that the boys were told about their new identity. They were to be called Jack and Bobby Kerstemont. The boys were given false identification and food ration cards.
The next day the doctor would drive them by car to their hiding place. This was a particular dangerous drive because the car would be stopped frequently at every checkpoint along the way. The plan was that the boys would pretend to be sick and the doctor was taking them to hospital. The boys were disguised and wrapped up in a warm rug. They had to look unwell, say nothing but cough in a feverish way. Again the boys felt natural excitement because they had never travelled in a car. When the car stopped at the checkpoints the boys played their sick children’s part well.
They got by the checkpoints and at last reached place were they were to hide. It was a convent called Colonie Saint Jean Berchmans. There is a photograph of the boys taken of the boys when they were at the convent (figure 3). It is not possible to tell them apart from the other children in the photograph. Jack is standing in front of the second lady on the right. Bobby is standing in front of him. It is a picture of happiness. Other boys have their arms round each other and lots of the children are smiling. It is like lots of other happy school pictures with the exception that its secret is that two of children are hiding from their Nazi persecutors. They seem to be resilient boys and soon settled into the routine of the convent. They found the daily visit to church bewildering but they could not say anything about its newness they had to learn quickly the worship rituals. The boys studied Christianity at the convent school. The one bright spot was that they could pray silently. Jack was able to mentally say
the Hebrew prayers he knew. The children in the convent did not have much food to eat so Jack and Bobby were one with their peers. They had to make do with bread and hot cereal. There was a treat for them on Sundays. They were given sardines. Jack loved eating this delicacy. The twins missed their parents. The hardest day to get through was Sunday. It was on this day that many parents came to see their children. Jack and Bobby knew that their parents would never be able to visit them. This made Jack feel envy towards those who had parents. He thought these children were lucky to have parents who could visit them and bring presents of food and books. The boys lived in fear of being discovered. They had to think carefully what they said to their peers and adults. They had to remember their new surname and the new family history. This was a constant concern one small slip and the game would be up.
The Allies after liberating Paris pressed north into Belgium. The British reached Brussels (September 2) and Antwerp (September 3). They were met by jubilant civilians realizing that the dark years of NAZIdom were finally over. There was hope in the Allied camp that with the German collapse in France that the NAZIs could be defeated in 1944. Antwep was the key to the Allied thrust on into Germany. The Allies reqired a deep water port in Belgium. Supplies were still being landed in Normandy and trucked through France via the Red Ball Express. This was creating enormous logistical problems and the Allies needed to shorten its supply lines. While the Allies after taking Brussels reached Antwerp the next day. Opening the port proved to be a much more difficult undertaking. The Germans had fortified islands in the Scheldt estuary. Montgomery did not initially grasp the importance. The Germans evem though cut off by the advancing Allies held out recognizing the importance of keeping the port closed. The Belgian Resistance played an important role in the costly effort to clear the Scheldt. [Moulton] Once in Allied hands, Antwerp and its harbor became a target for NAZI V-2 attacks. < On Sept. 4th, Brussels was liberated by Belgian troops (the government-in-exile had continued to rule over the BELGIAN CONGO and RUANDA-URUNDI, and had recruited Belgians in exile). Late in 1944, most of Belgium was liberated.
The end of Jack’s hiding finally came. The Allies landed in Normandy (June 1944). As thhe Allies drove through France and neared Belgium, the area around the convent came under heavy aerial bombardment. Everyone went to a shelter in the convent grounds but Jack was ill and could not be moved so he stayed in the building. Not long afterwards he was coming out of his fever and he saw a lady standing over his bed. He thought it was an angel but then he realised it was his mother. She had come for her boys. She took them back to Brussels and 2 weeks later the city was liberated.
Greenfeld, Howard. Hidden Children (Houghton Mifflin Company: Boston 1993)
Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site:
[Return to the Main Hidden Children book report page]
[Return to the Main Holocaust Catholic Church in Belgium page]
[Return to the Main Austrian Holocaust page]
[Introduction]
[Activities]
[Biographies]
[Chronology]
[Clothing styles]
[Countries]
[Bibliographies]
[Contributions]
[FAQs]
[Glossaries]
[Satellite sites]
[Tools]
[Boys' Clothing Home]