Chemd-Baum family. Collection

Maggy Jacqueline Baum was born in Verviers on 22 August 1931. Her father, Szaja Chaskel (Salomon) Baum, was a Polish merchant who dealt in knitted goods. Her mother, Alta Perla Chojnowski, was a housewife. Maurice Baum, brother of Szaja Chaskel Baum, also lived in Verviers. Their sister Gittel Baum and her family lived nearby in the village Dison. During the Second World War, Maggy Jacqueline Baum and her sister Nicole Hilda Baum were placed in hiding. Both girls and their parents survived the war. However, the other family members were not so lucky. Maurice Baum, Gittel Baum, her husband Salomon Chemd and their two youngest children Isaac Salomon and Berthe Chemd all presented themselves at the Dossin barracks at the end of July 1942 with their Arbeitseinsatzbefehl (convocation for forced labor). None of the family members survived deportation to Auschwitz-Birkenau via Transport I on 4 August 1942. Sarah Chemd, oldest child of Gittel Baum and Salomon Chemd and a Belgian citizen, survived the war by going into hiding. She passed away in 2011. Her cousin Maggy Jacqueline Baum still lives in Ixelles (Elsene, Brussels) today.

The photos and documents in this collection were gathered by Maggy Jacqueline Baum, niece of Gittel Baum and Maurice Baum. She donated the original photos to Kazerne Dossin in 2013.

Maggy Jacqueline Baum, 2013