be-002157-kd 00986
type: RecordSet
location of originals: Myriam Silberman, Private collection, Uccle
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: 1914-01-01
has end date: 2023-12-31
has or had holder: be-002157
has or had some members with language: heb
has or had some members with language: nld
has or had some members with language: fra
has or had subject: 112
has or had subject: 1226
has or had subject: 904
has or had subject: 519
has or had subject: 204
has or had subject: 556
has record set type: Collection
history: Efraim Silberman was born in Iwla, Poland, on 14 December 1901 as the son of Josef Silberman and Malka Teitelbaum. In 1921 Efraim settled in Berlin where he earned a living as a salesman and a decorator of shop windows. On 3 January 1928 he arrived in Antwerp on a tourist visa to visit his brother, who was ill and who lived in the port city. However, upon arrival Efraim immediately requested a permanent residence permit which was granted to him. Efraim settled at Uitbreidingstraat 223 in Berchem, only to move to Draakstraat 39 in Antwerp a few weeks later. He learned the trade of diamond cleaver and, by October 1930, lived at Zillebekelaan 13 in Berchem. In Antwerp, Efraim met Euga alias Augusta Holzer who had been born in Dukla, Poland, on 18 July 1906 as the daughter of Elias Holzer and Chaja alias Helena Kolber. Euga, her parents and her siblings had arrived in Belgium in 1907. During the First World War the family had fled to the Netherlands. In 1919 they returned to Antwerp where Euga’s father passed away in 1930. Efraim and Euga married in Berchem on 26 May 1931 and lived temporarily at Generaal Capiaumontstraat 40 before settling at Thaliastraat 30. The couple’s eldest daughter, Anna Esther alias Annie Silberman, was born in Antwerp on 30 October 1932. Youngest daughter Myriam was born in the port city on 9 August 1938. Efraim, Augusta and the children still lived at Thaliastraat 30 when Nazi-Germany invaded Belgium on 10 May 1940. By that time Efraim had become a diamond dealer. On 11 or 12 May 1940 the family attempted to flee south, travelling with Augusta’s eldest sister Gitel alias Gisele Holzer, her husband Tobias Borgenicht and their children Abraham Isaak and Mina, and Augusta’s youngest sister Bertha Holzer, her husband Nuchim Hollander and their daughter Blanche. Efraim and Augusta’s youngest child Myriam continuously cried while on route. When the train halted, the family got off to find some milk for the child. The train then left without the Silb…
history: On 5 june 2023 Myriam Silberman, daughter of Efraim Silberman and Euga alias Augusta Holzer, was interviewed by Dorien Styven, archivist at Kazerne Dossin. The interview was recorded by Myriam's son Eric Fux. Myriam Silberman also kindly permitted Kazerne Dossin to obtain digital copies of several documents and photos from her family archive which were added to this collection.
identifier: KD_00986
record resource extent: 115 digitised images (6 documents and 5 photos) and 1 testimony (1 hour 8 minutes)
results or resulted from: 1
scope and content: This collection contains: an audio-visual testimony by Myriam Silberman in which she recounts her life during the war, including the experiences of her father Efraim Silberman who was sent to a work camp in Northern France run by Organisation Todt and who escaped transport XVI taking him to Auschwitz-Birkenau, the help Myriam, her sister Anna alias Annie Silberman and their mother Euga alias Augusta Holzer received from their former housekeeper Marie in Antwerp and from Righteous amongst the Nations Charles Ollinger and Odon Dubois who hid the family in Mons under the false name “Steurs”, life in hiding in the company of Myriam’s maternal aunt Bertha Holzer, her uncle Nuchim Hollander and her cousin Blanche Hollander, and Myriam’s recollection of bombardments on the city ; five photos, including a pre-war photo of Euga alias Augusta Holzer and her two sisters Bertha and Gitel alias Gisele Holzer, a wartime photo of Myriam Silberman at school in Mons, a photo of the Silberman-Holzer and Hollander-Holzer families posing in front of the house in Mons where they were hidden, a post-war photo of Silberman-Holzer relatives and allied soldiers taken during the Pesach Seder organised in Mons after Liberation, a post-war photo of Myriam Silberman taken upon her return to Antwerp in 1945 ; a bound photocopy of the wartime and post-war correspondence between Righteous amongst the Nations Charles Ollinger and several of the people he saved, including the Silberman-Holzer family ; a bundle of speeches from the inauguration in 1994 of a commemorative plaque dedicated to the memory of Charles Ollinger; a bundle of speeches from the 1998 Righteous amongst the Nations ceremony in honour of Odon Dubois ; a newspaper clipping from 1999 telling the story of Charles Ollinger and Odon Dubois, Righteous amongst the Nations ; a testimony written by Anna alias Annie Silberman, in which she recounts the story of the Silberman-Holzer family in Belgium during the occupation.
title: Silberman-Holzer family. Collection