Sadowski-Brawerman family. Collection

Rachel Sadowski was born in Etterbeek, Brussels, in 1929. Her parents, Joseph Sadowski and Ida Brawerman, were both hat makers. The couple had emigrated from Russia to Belgium in July 1920. Ida was heavily pregnant and a daughter, Esther Dina Sadowski, was born in the Belgian capital two months later. With the birth of a third girl, Anna, in 1939, the family was complete. Even before the war, oldest daughter Esther Dina had become a popular actress under the name Dounia Sadow. Although she was Jewish, she still worked at a theater in Brussels, when, in December 1941, she was denounced and she lost her job. On 14 December 1943, Esther Dina Sadowski was arrested. At the Dossin barracks, she was forced to cite poems during spectacles organised for the camp staff, but she also performed for her fellow prisoners. Esther Dina Sadowski was released from the Dossin barracks on 14 February 1944. Queen Elisabeth had intervened on her behalf, since she was a well-known actress and having converted to Catholicism. After the war, Esther Dina Sadowski continued her acting career. She played in several postwar movies and died in 2015. Joseph Sadowski and Ida Brawerman were arrested in June 1944 and were deported from the Dossin barracks via Transport XXVI to Auschwitz-Birkenau in late July. Joseph Sadowski vanished upon arrival. A postwar testimony placed Ida Brawerman at the Hemstedt-Beendorf camp in January 1945. However, she did not survive. Joseph Sadowski and Ida Brawerman had placed their two youngest children, Rachel and Anna, in hiding in 1942. Both girls thus survived the war. Rachel Sadowski later on married René Coryn and still lives in Braine-l'Alleud. No further information regarding youngest sister Anna Sadowski is available.

Rachel Sadowski-Coryn visited Kazerne Dossin during its opening week in December 2012. She was so kind as to provide the documentation center with pictures of her parents and copies of documents she collected from government institutes. Both photos are now part of the commemoration wall at Kazerne Dossin.

Rachel Sadowski-Coryn, 2013