Memoir collection.

Memoir collection. 

Memoir collection. 

Over 2000 (digitised) memoirs. 

The Memoir collection of the Leo Baeck Institute holds thousands of mostly unpublished autobiographical accounts and memoirs. Around a quarter of them were written by women. Searching the Center for Jewish History database, we find that the descriptions of a few dozens of memoirs contain the words such as “Belgium”, “Brussels”, “Antwerp” etc. The memoirs relevant for this guide contain descriptions of, for example, life in Belgium (mostly in the interwar period), emigration to and temporary residence in Belgium after 1933, the situation of the German-Jewish refugees in Belgium, experiences during the war (hiding, arrest, deportation, life in the concentration camps), … Some manuscripts describe events for which information is rather scarce – see for example the diary of Philipp Schlesinger (ME 569), depicting his experiences as a German-Jewish soldier in Belgium and France during the First World War.