be-002157-kd 00106
has or had subject: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/vocabularies/ehri-terms/519
date: ca. 1938
results or resulted from: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/units/be-002157-kd_00106/acquisitions/1
has record set type: Collection
biographical history: Abe Birencwaig was born in Tomaszów, Poland, on 14 June 1895. He became a tailor and married Jenta Josefowicz. The couple had three children, all born in Tomaszów : Estera (b. 01/05/1923), Chaja Rebeka (b. 24/09/1924) and Zelik (b. 01/06/1926). Between 1928 and 1930, all Birencwaig family members emigrated to Belgium. Abe Birencwaig and Jenta Josefowicz settled in Brussels. Abe befriended Jacques (Yankel) Cyngler, who had married the catholic Dutch Wilhelmina (last name unknown) in 1920, when emigrating from Poland to Belgium. The couple had three sons : Joseph, Jean and Max Cyngler. The Cyngler family owned an upscale clothing shop in Liège. In the 1930s, Abe Birencwaig’s wife Jenta Josefowicz was killed in a car accident. Jacques Cyngler then suggested that Abe would remarry Jacques’ cousin Zysla Cyngler who was still living in Poland. Zysla had been born in Osjaków, Poland, on 5 July 1903 and worked as a cook for a Polish family. At the age of 35 she was still unmarried and childless. Zysla arrived in Brussels, Belgium, in December 1937 and married Abe Birencwaig in March 1938. She had a good relationship with her new husband and his three children who she treated as her own. On 1st December 1938, Zysla gave birth to a daughter named Mariette (Mindele) Birencwaig. The Birencwaig-Cyngler family still lived in Brussels when Nazi-Germany invaded Belgium on 10 May 1940. Life continued : oldest daughter Estera Birencwaig got engaged to Jean Cyngler, middle son of Zysla’s cousin Jacques Cyngler, and on 10 February 1942, Zysla Cyngler gave birth to a second daughter named Frieda. In the summer of 1942, disaster struck as Estera, Chaja Rebeka and Zelik Birencwaig received a convocation for forced labour (Arbeitseinsatzbefehl). They reported at the Dossin barracks at the end of July or the beginning of August 1942. All three children were killed after deportation to Auschwitz-Birkenau via Transport I on 4 August 1942. Jean Cyngler decided to travel to Germany to find his …
accruals: No further accruals are to be expected
archival history: Mariette Birencwaig-Bermowitz visited Kazerne Dossin in 2011 and donated digital copies of several family photos to the museum. She had inherited the photos from her father Abe Birencwaig. After the arrest of Zysla Cyngler and youngest daughter Frieda Birencwaig and the subsequent flight of Abe Birencwaig and daughter Mariette in November 1942, a neighbour saved a dresser that belonged to the family. Upon liberation, Abe Birencwaig returned to his family apartment and the neighbour gave him the dresser and its original contents back. Among the objects were clothing and shoes worn by the Birencwaig families and a purse belonging to oldest daughter Estera Birencwaig. The purse contained the family photo album.
has or had subject: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/vocabularies/ehri-terms/904
publication note: BERMOWITZ Mariette, Mindele's Journey. Memoir of a Hidden child of the Holocaust, Charleston, 2012.
title: Birencwaig-Cyngler family. Collection
type: RecordSet
scope and content: This collection contains nine pre-war photos of the Birencwaig-Cyngler family : group photos of Abe Birencwaig and Zysla Cyngler with their children, a photo of oldest daughter Esther Birencwaig with fiancee Jean Cyngler and a photo of Abe Birencwaig and his parents.
identifier: KD_00106
physical characteristics and technical requirements: Digitally stored at Kazerne Dossin
related material: The included photos of Estera, Chaja Rebecca and Zelik Birencwaig were used to complete the"Give them a Fac" portrait collection (KD_00017) and the commemoration wall at the Kazerne Dossin museum
conditions of access: Contact Kazerne Dossin Documentation Centre: archives@kazernedossin.eu
location of originals: Mariette Birencwaig-Bermowitz, Private collection, New York
record resource extent: 9 digitised images (9 photos)
has or had holder: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/institutions/be-002157
conditions of use: Contact Kazerne Dossin Documentation Centre: archives@kazernedossin.eu