Boekman-Van der Horst family. Collection

Emmanuel Boekman was born in Amsterdam in 1907. In 1909 his parents, Hartog Boekman and Lea Vieyra, decided to move to Antwerp. Emmanuel became a commercial traveler and in 1935 married Bertha (Elisabeth) Van der Horst, born in Antwerp in 1908. Their son, Henri Alexander Boekman, was born in Berchem, Antwerp, in 1938. The family settled in Nijlen. At the beginning of 1942, Emmanuel got involved in illegal resistance activities. He specialised in forgery and created fake IDs, work permits, baptism documents, ration stamps, marriage licenses… by collecting old documents and replacing the stamps with new ones. In November 1942, Emmanuel, his wife and son went into hiding in Laeken, Brussels. While Emmanuel Boekman became Emmanuel Beeckman, Bertha took on the fake name Berthe Humbert. When their hideout was bombed in May 1944, the Boekman-Van der Horst family was forced to move to a new address. In June 1944, while delivering forged papers to Dutch work refusers hiding in Brussels, Emmanuel Boekman was arrested. He did not survive deportation from the Dossin barracks via transport XXVI to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Berthe Van der Horst and their son Henri Alexander Boekman survived the war in hiding. In 1951, Emmanuel Boekman posthumously received the title of civil resistance fighter. Berthe Van der Horst passed away in Antwerp in 1999. Henri Boekman still lives in Antwerp.

[Henri Alexander Boekman, 2014]