be-002157-kd 00959
type: RecordSet
location of originals: Rita Adriaenssens, Private collection, Belgium
publication note: SERRIEN Pieter, Eva Fastag - De laatste getuige. Hoe ik de Dossinkazerne en de Holocaust overleefde, Antwerpen, 2019. "Giza Weissblu", in: Partisans armés Juifs. 38 témoignages, Bruxelles, 1991, p. 478-488.
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: 1941-01-01
has end date: 1947-12-31
has or had holder: be-002157
has or had subject: 112
has or had subject: 904
has record set type: Collection
history: The Ecran-Petri family received and kept several photos of Simon Weissblum and his parents David and Giza Weissblum-Wachspress during and after the war. These items were handed down to daughter-in-law Rita Adriaenssens, who, on behalf of the Ecran-Petri family, kindly shared digital copies with Kazerne Dossin in 2022. Rita contacted Kazerne Dossin via author Pieter Serrien after reading his biography of Eva Fastag in which the Ecran-Petri family is referenced as rescuers of Simon Weissblum.
history: David Weissblum was born in Tarnow, Poland, on 30 October 1911. He became a furrier. On 5 July 1936 he married Giza alias Gitel Wachspress, who was born in Tarnow on 15 December 1916. In July 1939 David and Giza fled to Belgium where Giza had relatives. The couple settled at Guldenvliesstraat 18, awaiting their visa to emigrate. In January 1940, they moved to Rudolfstraat 64 where they still resided when Nazi-Germany invaded Belgium on 10 May 1940. David and Giza fled to France and reached the rural village Saint-Pierreville. At the end of 1940, receiving news that the situation in Belgium wasn’t all that bad, they decided to return to Antwerp. Since Jews were not allowed to return to Belgium they had to cross the French-Belgian border clandestinely. When arriving in Antwerp in January 1941 their landlord had emptied their apartment and had sold all their belongings. David and Giza then settled at Jacob Jordaensstraat 7. Giza took on a job working as a volunteer in a refuge for the Jewish poor run by the Ezra aid society in Antwerp. Meanwhile David and Giza were forced to obey the anti-Jewish decrees. They registered in the municipal Jewish register of Antwerp in February 1941. When asked to help distribute illegal newspapers smuggled from Brussels to Antwerp by their neighbour Eva Fastag, David and Giza got involved in clandestine activities. On 18 December 1941 Giza gave birth to a baby boy named Simon, but she and David continued to deliver pamphlets, hiding the prints in their son’s stroller. In July 1942, to avoid being claimed as a forced labourer, David Weissblum moved from Terliststraat 14 in Antwerp to Boulevard Jacques Bertrand 75 in Charleroi where he worked for the Belgian railroad company. In Charleroi, David also started printing clandestine newspapers for the Front de l’Indépendance [Independent Front]. In addition, he collected funds for Solidarité, in support of families of victims of the Nazis. Once a week David visited his wife Giza and son Simon …
identifier: KD_00959
record resource extent: 9 digitised images (7 photos)
results or resulted from: 1
scope and content: This collection contains: a wartime photo of spouses David Weissblum and Giza Wachspress ; a wartime photo of Giza Wachspress ; a wartime photo of Giza Wachspress and her son Simon Weissblum ; two wartime photos of Simon Weissblum as a baby and as a toddler ; a wartime photo of Simon Weissblum with his rescuer misses Ecran-Petri ; two post-war photos of the Weissblum-Wachspress family.
title: Weissblum-Wachspress family