Mordka Najman. Collection

Mordka Najman was born in Lodz, Poland, on 14 April 1893. He became a fitter and emigrated to Marcinelle, Belgium. During the war he lived in Charleroi, Belgium, where he shared a small apartment with Szyfra Gothelf (b. 11/12/1899 in Grachow, Poland) and their son Albert (b. 16 April 1937 in Charleroi, Belgium). Mordka Najman was arrested in July 1944 and did not survive deportation from the Dossin barracks to Auschwitz-Birkenau via Transport XXVI on 31 July 1944. His wife and child survived the war. On 25 September 1947, Szyfra Gothelf claimed her husband’s personal documents, which had been confiscated upon his arrival at the Dossin barracks, at the offices of the Ministry of Reconstruction.

It is likely that Mordka Najman carried the documents in this collection with him when he was arrested in July 1944. Upon arrival at the Dossin barracks, the documents of all detainees were confiscated, wrapped in brown envelopes and added to the camp administration. After Liberation, the envelopes were retrieved by the Belgian authorities and stored at the Ministry of Reconstruction, where repatriated survivors and family members were allowed to claim them. It is likely that Szyfra Gothelf claimed Mordka Najman’s documents on 25 September 1947. While Szyfra and her son Albert Gothelf received the originals, the envelope remained part of the archives of the Ministry of Reconstruction. In the 1990s, the complete “relics collection” was deposited at the Jewish Museum of Deportation and Resistance, predecessor of Kazerne Dossin, by the Belgian Jewish community Indemnification Commission (Buysse Commission).

Anonymous, 2014