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war and social upheaval : World War II -- Austrian Belgian Holocaust individual children
The Holocaust in Austria and Belgium: The Rotmil Family
Figure 1.-- Pere Bruno thought it best to hide Bernard and me in separate places. I was named with two non de guerre: Roumieux and then Van Raemsdonck. (The Van Raemsdoncks were Belgian World War I heros.) I was told not to speak any German ever and also that I was the sole survivor of my family--all killed in the war. A wealthy family took me in at considerable risk. They lived in a chateau in Nederrockerzeel. The man's wife went to college with Madame Luyckx. Thus I was invited to stay away from danger. Here I am (the older boy in the second row) with their children and the governess Mia. The kids in the front were Chantal, Leon, Alex, and Marc. I can't think of the baby's name. They are all alive and I am in touch with Leon who lives in America.
My parents along with my brother and sister manage to get us out of Austria to Belgium (1939). We were housed at the Marneffe refugee camp. I was the youngest, 6 years old when we arrived at Marneffe. we shared responsibilities. I remember some people cooked. My mother was in charge of the baths, thus I was in a tub half the time. I also recall wonderful communal dining. It was a peaceful place to be, a refuge more than anything. Then Germany invaded Belgium (May 1940). we had to pack our suitcases and join the throngs of people trying to escape toward France. We also assumed that the French Army would again stop the Germans as they did in World War I. We walked for 4 days. Luftwaffe aircraft strafed the long lines of refugees clogging the French roads, killing and wounding people. Finally we made it to Arras and there boarded a train that tragically crashed in Morgny La Pommeraie, killing 50 people and injuring 150. My brother and I were among the wounded. Our mother and sister were killed. After the Fall, my brother and I returned to Brussels searching for our father who we had become separated from on the road. There we lived with him. He was arrested and deported to Auschwitz where he was murdered. Father Bruno Reynders from the Abbe du Mont Cesar took ny brother and I under his wings, and hid us with other families, the Luyckx among them. He managed to hide 400 children. Not long ago I made a documentary of my journey, including a visit to Marneffe. I would like to contact others who were at Marneffe.
Our Family
Our father was an art broker and did well with that, feast or famine. He could make money and lose it just as fast. My father was very religious. He prayed at home a lot. His father was a rabbi in Poland. To put Rotmil in national, geographic perspective, it was a town north of Prague--spelled Rothmuhl sometimes. We kept kosher food, pesach dishes, the works. Most holidays were around the
dining table. My father, alone with us, prayed, with those boxes on his forehead and a tallis each morning. When his mother died during the London blitz he sat on an down turned chair for a week, sitting shivah for mourning, you sit below the world. When someone dies they say, a piece of
God goes missing, and when you pray it is to put God together again--a lot of God went missing during the War and the Holocaust. We led a comfortable life until the NAZIs seized power (1933). My parents, like every Jew then, were very concerned about the persecution of Jews during that period. We were German. I was born in Strasbourg, in Alsace, France (1932). I can recall a a small child that we moved all the time. First to Metz (also in Alsace), then Paris (1936) and Vienna (1938).
As father was an art broker and he dealt with art galleries and buyers on his own to make a living he had to freelance. So he thought Vienna was the place. I was still quite young. I do not know just how he assessed the NAZI threat at the time. Obviously he miscalculated. We stepped into the
mouth of the wolf, when Hitler marched into Austria--the Anschluss (March 1938). My aunt Regina Gottlieb, sister of my mother, took a different step. She left with her husband from the south of France for the United States (1938). Smart, but radical move--leaving your roots and everything else behind.
Anchluss and Kristallnacht (1938)
We reached Vienna just before the Anschluss (March 1938). I was only 5 years old at the time of the Anschluss. We were still in Vienna. I witnessed beatings on the streets. I saw the crowds when Hitler rolled into Vienna. I saw the Hitler Youth members on the street cheering him on, with my sister by my side. I vividly recall Kristallnacht (November 1938). Thugs burst through our apartment door. They beat up my father, banged his head against a table over a map. They took him away to a local prison. I'm not sure of the name, but I went there and stood outside the gate recently. It was a horrific time. You can imagine that a little boy my age was terrified. My sister and I walked over the broken glass the next day, seeing the ravages from the thugs, the devotees, followers of Hitler. Mother and father when he was released did what they could to make feel good. They treated me with love and kindness and chocolates and nice meals. I felt secure with them around. The crime from the NAZIs was not only the murders, but destroying families and damaging lives. Father was released after only ashort time. Many other Jews were held longer. Some were killed.
Escaping the Reich
When I give talks to student and other groups, I am often asked why didn't the Jews lerave Germany. Many Jews did leave Germany. But people have to ask themselves, what would you do if you had to leave your country after the Government stripped you of your property. What would you do, where would you go. How would you make a living? And NAZI policy towardJews was not at the beginning one of killing. NAZI policy varied, there were periods of relative moderation which caused some German Jews to hope that this would be passing phase. They did not have the advantagecof hindsight that we do today. After his orderal, father realized that he had to get us out of Germany.
Flight (December 1938)
When father was released he managed to get us an exit Fremden Pass, a passport of sorts. We mended our way through Germany toward Belgium. Most borders were closed to Jews. Father heard that the Belgian border was open. We could not use the trains which is how most Germans traveled at the time. The NAZIS prohibited Jews from using trains. We hitched rides on trucks. Ww paid people to take us to the border,
some let us ride free. Others we had to pay. Finally we got safely to Belgium. I don't think we entered legally through a border checkpoint. I remember us walking through a forest and my waking up in a Belgian city. Thus I think we snuck across the border.
Marneffe (1939-40)
After entering Belgium, we headed for Marneffe. We found housing at the Marneffe estate. We did not call it a camp and it was not a camp in the sense the term is mostly used in connection with World War II. They accommodated refugees. usually a camp is a place that is built especially for prisoners or refugees. That draws images of tents and makeshift and fences. Marneffe was nothing like that at all. It was an estate owned by the government, the gift of a rich man to house refugees. ..it was not a camp. I was like living on an expensive private estate. Marneffe was located south of Brussels and was a huge estate with several buildings which was made available for refugees. we were free to come and go as we pleased. As with Hurricane Katrina when they set up camps for refugees of the storm, Marneffe was not a prison. It was an estate given to the Belgium Governmernt by a wealthy man. There were a mix of people there. Not all the refugees were Jews. There were some Polish refugees who managed to get west. There were anti-NAZIs political refugees from Germany. And there were other Jews like us. There were both documented and undocumented refugees there. I was the youngest in our family, 6 years old when we arrived at Marneffe. we shared responsibilities. I remember some people cooked. My mother was in charge of the baths, thus I was in a tub half the time. I also recall wonderful communal dining. It was a peaceful place to be, a refuge more than anything.
German Invasion (May 1940)
Then Germany invaded Belgium (May 1940). we had to huridly pack our suitcases and join the throngs of people trying to escape toward France. I am not sure if everyone left Marneffe, but I think most people did. People who took to the road were not just Jewish, but people in general who
feared the Germans, "les boches" and still mistrust them to this day. People remembered World War I, not because the Germans had invaded an occupied almost all of Belgium for 4 years. The remarks I would hear would be like "Not again!!!" some older people were shocked to see that the Germans were at it again, invading left and right, in spite of the idea that World War W was the war to end all wars. We all hoped that the French Army would again stop the Germans as they did in World War I and thus we tried to get south to France. We walked for 4 days. Luftwaffe aircraft strafed us. There were long lines of refugees clogging the French roads and people were wounded and killed. The people on the road were killed unless they ran for the ditches along the side for cover.
France
We walked west toward France. We headed for Arras across the border in northern France. Long walks are especially difficult for younger children. Our father went looking for a wheelbarrow and we got separated. We did not find him again until we got back to Brussels. Finally we made it to Arras and there boarded a train. Tragically the train crashed in Morgny La Pommeraie, killing 50 people and injuring 150. Our mother and sister were killed. My brother and I were among the wounded. my mother and sister are buried in Rouen in the Cimetiere de l'ouest, Bernard and I ended up in Brittany on an island Ile de Berder. We were all alone at first.
Back to Belgium
My brother and I were taken in by Madame Gutt, the wife of the finance minister of Belgium. She wanted to adopt us. but when we found my father we moved in with him and managed to survive until 1943. My brother and I were able to attend school for 2 years. Jewish children were forbidden to go to public school by decree (1942). The Belgian teachers looked the other way, which is why we kept going even after the decree. While we were forbidden to attend by decree, my brother and I went anyway for a while. Then some Hitler Youth appeared and it was really no longer safe. When those bully kids came to school and teachers began disappearing, we stopped going and just stayed home.
[Charles: Were these not Belgian Fascist youth rather than the German Hitler Youth?]
My father did business on his own The German occupation authorites ordered Jews to wear yellow stars (1942). We did not wear the star. Father burned them in an ashtray. Going to synagogue became dangerous. Since I was not yet 12 I was not involved with that. The NAZIs issued all kinds of regulations making it difficult for Jews to live. (1940-41). We tried to fit in as best we could. Luckily Strassboiurh while in Germany was on the Rhine border with France. It is thus bilingual. Thus we could speak both French and German. Father ordered us never speak German ever. It would have been a give away.
The industrial killing phase of the Holocaust began in mid-1042 when the NAZI death camps in Poland became operational. At this time the NAZI authorities in Belgium and other countries began rounding up Jews for deportation to the death camps. At first the NAZI authorities tried to trick Jews to report for labor service. Some did report, but because many did not, the authorities began to round up Jews indecrimately. I was blond and blue eyes, looking Aryan myself. Thus I got away with a lot and could move about freely. Germans were even nice to me, Bernard and I were almost picked up in one ofthose round ups. It was a terrifying experience. we lived on the top floor of a house of pleasure that was set up for the German Luftwaffe and my father had a mistress there. So we are on the top floor at night sleeping. Our father was not there then. That actually probably saved us. Suddenly a man was standing over us with a Luger pistol to my head. I recall that Luger clearly even to this day. Can you imagine holding a pistol to a little boy's head. "Raus, raus" (Up, up) he screamed. My brother and I were terrified, but quickly dressed and ran downstairs, as ordered. They did not beat us, but were shouting. In the living room, a table with a light was set up and one by one we were interrogated. The Germans who were arresting us wore rubberized grey trench coats. It was a trademark for the Gestapo. Lots of shouting. Finally my turn came. I stood all alone in front of that table with a bright light to my face. The Gestapo man shouted at me "Bist du Jude? Tu es juif?" I fell mute and frozen with fear and could not speak. I reacted as if I did not understand the question...not if I was not Jewish.. Tthey let me go. "Raus" (get out) and I ran out of the room and ran upstairs. My brother was already there looking out the window. We saw the people loaded on an open military truck. They were to be deported to the death camps. the next day father moved us into my his apartment. A few months later he was arrested and we went into hiding.
Father's Arrest (July 1943)
We managed to hide out for some time. Father was arrested on the street (1943). He was betrayed. There was a Jewish man, by the name of Jacques who went around in a small car with a Gestapo agent and pointed Jews out in the street. We got a card from prison to send him a package which we did. We included small stuff even a bottle of cologne 711. He was deported to Auschwitz. my father was on transport XXI, 21, number 779 and he was gassed upon arrival, along with 1,079 others. There were 440 selected for work. Only 40 were still alive at alive at liberation. Outright brutal murder.
Without father, my brother and I were on our own. We were all alone in the apartment. My brother, Bernard, decided that we had to go into hiding fast. They were making mass arrest of Jews. It was no longer safe to be inside our apartment. The authoritiews had addresses. We took a
chance. Actually we had no choice. What would you have done if the hunt had intensified? Stay in the apartment? Like sitting ducks? No You would fly. Bernard told me to wait on the stoop of the apartmen building. I stayed there while he searched for help from a local church. They led him to the monastery in Louvain, Abbey of Mont Cesar, where he found Pere Bruno Reynders. That was terrible time for me. I never felt so alone. My mind was racing. Imagine being on the hunt, the hunted, like animals. I looked around a lot for danger, that is all you do. if I saw a German uniform, I would walk the other way or not turn the corner in a street. On that stoop the sun was blazing hot. Once I walked up to the corner of the street and got a cold drink, something like KoolAid--an erzatz drink, a fake drink. Hours later, Pere Bruno appeared and I took his hand and went with him to the Abbey. This in 1943 was a crucial rescue, because the NAZI policy at the time was to arrest all the Belgian Jews and transport them to the death camps in Poland. If Bernard had not found Pere Bruno we would have been arrested in the riundups and killed for being Jewish. Isn't that astounding? We were so very fortunate to find Father Bruno who took us under his wings. He his us with other families, the Lucky among them. He managed to hide 400 children. Pere Bruno thought it best to hide Bernard and me in separate places. I had an underground hideaway near Louvain where a rich family took me in (figure 1). Since I was not yet 12, before Father was arrested, I was not much involved in worshiping with father. I was only an observer. Ironically when I posed as a Catholic in hiding, I became a fervent follower. We used to wish we could get our own apparitions. There were many Allied air raids, both American and British. Louvain was an important rail junction with railroad repair yards. We both feared and welcomed the Allied bombing because we wanted the Germans to leave. The British bombed all night. Do you think they knew where they were dropping bombs? Total darkness. The Americans bombed duringvthe day. We were warned all day that this was the plan, from both the British and Americans. I visited a hideout with Pere Bruno who took me along with him into the forest, because he had to see some of the Resistance people. I remember standing outside a tent and even got to touch a Tommy gun. They were automatic weapons that paratroopers would jump out of the planes with. The British supporting the Resistance dropped these guns and other supplies into open fields in the dead of night.
Liberation (September 1944)
We moved from Louvain after the Allies bombed that city. Near the end I was staying in a chateau hidden by the Luyckx family. Two young German soldiers came by, fleeing, and wanted our bicycles. They lined us up against the wall and almost executed us, the famille Luyckx and all of us, but changed their minds and left in a cloud of dust. There were those young German recruits who were given the task of cleaning up as the Allies advanced and the Germans had retreated back to Germany.
America
Bernard and I were reunited with Jewish groups after liberation. After the War, we were able to emigrate to the United States (December 1946) to live with my aunt Regina Vever and her husband. Aunt Regina was my mother's sister. They had managed to get to America before the War. We found her in an ad she had placed in the German language newspaper Aufbau.
Marneffe Today
Not long ago I made a documentary of my journey, including a visit to Marneffe.
when I returned there recently, the old stone gates were still there and the road out looked the same. [Rotmil] I would like to contact others who were at Marneffe.
Why
I became a 'wise' child from an early age. My perception was that of a child, a wise child. I saw and stood amazed at what I saw: the beatings in Vienna, the German planes strafing us, the train crash, my father's arrest, the raid when I was interrogated in front of two Gestapo agents, and let go at the time, while 20 others were taken away to be executed and tortured. I was too young to know the details of what was happening, but I knew right from wrong. Children are very wise and when I tell my story it is from that perspective that I come from, what I saw and my impression, even
as a very young child. I knew the Germans were up to no good and were awful. How they got that way I did not know, but studied years later as an adult. I am still trying to find meaning. and still ask the question of why it all happened. In Primo Levi's book If I were a Man, he tells of how at a camp he once took an icicle to suck on and the guard took it away from him. He ask him 'Varum?' Why? The guard said to him "Hier gibt kein varum," ... Here there is no why.
I have made a film, "Here There is No Why". It is listed in the Imdb data base, A copy can be obtained by contacting me. It is about an hour. I have entered the film in competition and I plan to do more of the same soon, doing more interviews and revisiting these places of my youth.
Bernard
As you can imagine, my brother Bernard an I were very close. As I was quite young, I looked up to him almost vlike the father we had lost. Bernard was not much older, but at our age, a few years made a big difference. Bernard died July 20, 2010. He suffering a stroke four years earlier. He was 84 years old. I miss him dearly, we went through so much together. It was his good sense to go to the church that saved us.
The Holocaust and Human Rights Center of Maine (HHRC) is located in Augusta, Maine. They are engaged in a range of activities. Charles is an active member and his talks can be scheduled through the Centers speaker's bureau.
Sources
The author here is Charles Rotmil. Charles provided the information in a series of eMails during July 2010. The page was edited by Dennis Weidner.
