be-002157-kd 00892
type: RecordSet
archival history: On 13 November 2002 Jenny Birnbaum donated a reproduction of a portrait of herself to the Jewish Museum of Deportation and Resistance, predecessor of Kazerne Dossin. A handwritten testimony and a questionnaire filled out by Jenny were also added to the collection via her brother Joseph Birenbaum. After the passing of Jenny Birnbaum, her daughters Brigit Camberlin and Manon Camberlin donated the original objects and documents in this collection to Kazerne Dossin on 7 June 2022.
biographical history: Schenja alias Jenny Birnbaum or Birenbaum was born on 19 April 1929 in Cologne, Germany. She was the eldest child of Simon Birnbaum (born on 13 August 1897 in Checiny, Poland) and Salka Flescher (born on 23 February 1900 in Stanislawow, Poland). Jenny had three younger siblings: Esther who was called Erna (born on 8 November 1931), Joseph (born on 26 December 1932) and Herschel (born on 4 November 1936). After the Nazis rose to power, the Birnbaum family struggled. Father Simon owned a shoemaker’s workshop but was forced to sell his machinery one by one to provide for his family. During Kristallnacht the workshop was completely destroyed. Simon, however, was no longer there to witness the destruction. He had been expelled to Zbaszyn in Poland on 28 October 1938 during the so-called Polenaktion. Mother Salka stayed behind in Cologne with four young children and made plans to send eldest daughter Jenny to Belgium via the Red Cross. Salka had remained in contact with her former employers, the Mayer family, who had fled to Antwerp, Belgium, and who agreed to take in Jenny. Jenny was subsequently permitted to leave Germany, but she didn’t want to go without her sister Esther. Salka then decided to send both her daughters on a Kindertransport to Belgium. Jenny and Esther arrived on 24 December 1938. Unfortunately, the Mayer family had already left for New York by that time and the Birnbaum sisters were taken in by the Lemarchand family in Groot-Bijgaarden who abused Jenny as a live-in maid and a cleaning lady. At the beginning of 1939 Salka decided to also send over eldest son Joseph. He was reunited with Jenny and Esther at the Lemarchand family home in Groot-Bijgaarden on 3 May 1939. Jenny, Esther and Joseph still lived with the Lemarchand family when Nazi Germany invaded Belgium on 10 May 1940. In April 1942 Jenny, Esther and Joseph learned they could no longer attend their non-Jewish school. The Lemarchands then decided to split up the siblings as they presumably coul…
publication note: BIRENBAUM Joseph, Les chaînons manquants, Wemmel, s.d. [private publication] ; BIRENBAUM Alain, Salka, Simon, Herschel, 2019, Brussels [private publication].
related material: Collection KD_00540 contains photos regarding the story of the Birnbaum-Flescher family.
accruals: No further accruals are to be expected
conditions of access: Contact Kazerne Dossin Research Centre: archives@kazernedossin.eu
conditions of use: Contact Kazerne Dossin Research Centre: archives@kazernedossin.eu
has beginning date: 1944-01-01
has end date: 2010-12-31
has or had holder: be-002157
has or had some members with language: eng
has or had some members with language: deu
has or had some members with language: fra
has or had subject: 800
has or had subject: 673
has or had subject: 519
has or had subject: 904
has or had subject: 598
has record set type: Collection
identifier: KD_00892
record resource extent: 40 digital images (8 documents, 7 objects and 1 photo)
results or resulted from: 1
scope and content: This collection contains: a portrait photo of Jenny Birnbaum, 1944 ; an order from the Kreiskommandantur in Nivelles to misses Lemarchand in Genval to present herself at their office regarding her foster child Jenny Birnbaum, 1944 ; two drawings created by Jenny Birnbaum in Auschwitz, 1944 ; a letter written by Jenny Birnbaum to her family after her liberation at Kaufering Lager XI, 1945 ; a telegram sent by Jenny Birnbaum to the Lemarchand family in Genval announcing her repatriation, 1945 ; an allied expeditionary force displaced person index card issued to Jenny Birnbaum, 1945 ; a little box with five small brooches and pendants collected by Jenny Birnbaum while held at Auschwitz-Birkenau ; a post-war pin with Jenny Birnbaum’s tattoo number A24045 from Auschwitz-Birkenau ; a questionnaire and a testimony written by Jenny Birnbaum regarding her life in Belgium, her arrest in 1944, her deportation from the Dossin barracks to Auschwitz-Birkenau via Transport XXVI and her repatriation in 1945.
title: Jenny Birnbaum. Collection