Kazerne Dossin Research Centre
This collection consists of an interview with Jeanne Glibert. In her testimony Jeanne talks about her youth, the beginning of the war as she fled with friends, living under occupation in Antwerp, traitors who snitched on Jews, Jewish youth friends Betti Van Hamberg, Claudine Van Hamberg and Irène Brandes, and about Jewish links after the war.
Jeanne Glibert was interviewed in Kontich by Veerle Vanden Daelen, Kazerne Dossin, on 6 December 2022.
Jeanne Glibert, born on 1 March 1921, is the daughter of Roger Gaston Glibert and Anna Joanna Maria Mermans. Roger Glibert himself was born on 14 September 1885 as the son of Adolphe Glibert and Odila Schotte. Roger Glibert worked as an industrialist in the Antwerp harbour, namely as a shipowner. Anna Mermans was born on 24 July 1889 as the daughter of Charles August Mermans and Joana Maria Deckers. On 10 July 1917, Roger and Anna got married in Antwerp. Before the second world war, the family lived in a manor in Kontich named Cottage d’Hélèneveld. Before them the Havenith family lived there. Their son Charles Havenith (1852-1909) was a banker. He married Hélène Van Put. One of their children was Hélène Havenith (1885-1912). Hélène married Robert Meeùs (1882-1958) at Kontich in 1907 but died at the age of 26. They had four children: Frédérique, Charles, Hippolyte and the youngest Hélène Meeùs. Jeanne Glibert lived in the attached gardener's house where the dairy production of (Laiterie) Héléneveld used to be. The Lyceum in Antwerp is where Jeanne Glibert went to school. Before the second world war began, the Glibert family already had moved to Antwerp to a house at Marialei 44 next to the military hospital of Antwerp in the so called Groen Kwartier area. At the start of the war, Jeanne Glibert was 19 years old and in the second year of her studies as a physiotherapist in Brussels. During the first 18 days of the war, Jeanne Glibert fled with friends until capitulation. Among other things they slept in the straw on a French farmstead. After this period, and when lessons were resumed, Jeanne Glibert kept up studying throughout the war. Meanwhile the Cottage d’Hélèneveld in Kontich, where her grandmother still lived, was seized by the Germans for the housing of German military men. The grandmother of Jeanne Glibert came to live with her at Marialei 44. There they moved most things to the basement where they mostly lived during the war. In the house next to Jeanne lived a Jewish tailor's family, a young couple with a small daughter. Living in the 2nd house next door to her at the time was Belgian painter Floris Jespers. Once when the bombs fell and the glass burst from the windows, he pulled her inside to take shelter in the basement. Once, Jeanne came by train from Mechelen and would take the tram in Antwerp. Her father would do the same along with his friends as he always does. However, the concierge stopped him to ask for something which ensured he was not on the tram that was being bombed. Jeanne herself was just barely not on it either. There was no shipping traffic on the Scheldt during the war. Subject to permission, you could sail between Temse and Doel. Jeanne did this with a friend, and has fond memories of it. In the same street as Jeanne Glibert lived the Lombaerts family: a widow with five children. All of the children except for the eldest were on the run from the Germans. The eldest son became a snitch and indicated the homes of Jewish families. He himself ended up dying in prison after the war. His mother and youngest sister were heavily wounded during the war. His brothers Ivan and Christiaan Lombaerts died. One of the families that the eldest son snitched on, Jeanne remembers well how she saw them as they were forced out of their house and taken away. In the neighbourhood of the Marialei there lived many Jews. At the Antwerp Lyceum, Jeanne Glibert had about 12 or 13 Jewish friends in her class. She mentions only three of them returned after the war. Two of the friends of Jeanne Glibert were the sisters Betti, born 20 August 1921, and Claudine Van Hamberg, 26 June 1923. They were children from widow Nelly Sasserath. As Betti, Claudine, Nelly and her new husband Eduard Frenkel were being arrested on 17 November 1943, the brother of the sisters called Lucien fell on the cobblestones due to pneunomia. All five were deported with Transport XXIII on 15 January 1944. Only the two sisters were able to make it back home again after the war. Another one of the Jewish friends of Jeanne Glibert was Irène Brandes, born on 24 July 1921, who lived in Helenalei 8 right around the corner. Her father, Abraham Brandes, was a rabbi. He was at the barber across the street just as a truck came with which the Germans wanted to arrest his children. The mother of Irène, Feigla Wietschner, was left at home as she was too sick. Irène Brandes herself was able to escape through multiple connected backyards. So she went into hiding at her young fiancé Jean Lefebvre's house a little further away and hid in Wallonia. They also married and she died at the age of 53. Her dad was never caught and escaped. As the war came to a close, the repression against collaborators left a big impression on Jeanne Glibert. The family was able to move back to Kontich on 31 July 1946 and Jeanne Glibert married the young judge Jean Verhaegen (4 April 1914 - 19 July 1988), who had to judge collaborators during short trials shortly after the war. During the war, he also passed sentences. Their daughter married Mr. Antonsen. The Antonsen family had been manufacturing tarpaulins and related products for generations. One of Mr. Antonsen's brothers and one of those brothers' daughters married a Jewish brother and sister (via cross-marriages). They fled in pairs via Portugal to the United States. They returned to Brussels after the war. A granddaughter of Jeanne Glibert married a man whose father was Jewish.
Video length: 42:28
No further accruals are to be expected
Contact Kazerne Dossin Research Centre: archives@kazernedossin.eu
Jeanne Glibert. Collection
1 interview