Ilzycer-Dembrowska family. Collection

Icchok Ilzycer was born in Warsaw, Poland, on 28 March 1899. He became a varnish worker and emigrated to Belgium via Paris, France, in October 1925. In July 1926, he succeeded in bringing over his fiancée Pesa Chaja Dembowska, born in Warsaw on 28 December 1905. The couple got married in Anderlecht, Brussels, on 8 January 1927. On 2 July 1928, Pesa gave birth to their first daughter, Mina. On 18 November 1932, a second daughter, Jenny, was born in Etterbeek, Brussels. In 1942, the Ilzycer family went into hiding. On 30 March 1943, Icchok Ilzycer, his wife Pesa Chaja Dembrowska and oldest daughter Mina were arrested by the Sicherheitspolizei-Sicherheitsdienst. None of them survived deportation from the Dossin barracks to Auschwitz-Birkenau via Transport XX on 19 April 1943. Jenny Ilzycer managed to escape arrest, how is unclear. The postcard sent by her father Icchok Ilzycer to the catholic priest Roger Dereymaeker (b. 20/09/1918 in Anderlecht and d. 19/06/1914 in Waterloo), might contain a hidden message about Jenny hiding on an attic (reference to "petits oiseaux", small birds). After liberation, Jenny was taken in by Raymond Oppelt in Waterloo, Brussels.

In June 2013, Paule Cornille donated a scanned copy of the original postcard to Kazerne Dossin.

Paule Cornille, 2013