Benedikt Felsen and Regina Degen. Collection

Benedikt Felsen was born on 25 January 1905 in Lemberg, Poland (today Lviv, Ukraine). Regina Degen had been born in the same city on 12 July 1903. Both moved to Vienna, Austria, before the war. There, on 14 August 1932, Regina married Ernst Ingber (b. 19/06/1901 in Unterwikow, now Vicovu de Jos, Romania). On 20 August 1938, Regina Degen and her husband Ernst Ingber fled from Austria to Belgium. It is likely that Benedikt Felsen was part of the same group of refugees which illegally crossed the German-Belgian border that day. As of the summer of 1939, Regina Degen and Ernst Ingber lived separated. It is likely that Benedikt and Regina became a couple even before the invasion of Belgium on 10 May 1940. The municipal registration of Jews at the end of 1940 shows that Benedikt Felsen and Regina Degen were living together in Antwerp at Schoonhovenstraat 68. At the end of 1940, the Kommandantur in Antwerp expelled thousands of foreigners – mostly Jews –and sent them to the province of Limburg where they were dispersed among the municipalities and often housed by local families. Benedikt Felsen and Regina Degen were sent to As, where they were taken in by the Paulissen family that ran a farm. At the end of March 1941, the expellees were allowed to return to Antwerp. Benedikt Felsen and Regina Degen returned home at the beginning of April. In the summer of 1942, both received a convocation for forced labour (Arbeitseinsatzbefehl). They reported at the Dossin barracks on 12 August 1942. Both were killed after deportation to Auschwitz-Birkenau via Transport III on 15 August 1942. Louis Paulissen, son of the family that hosted Benedikt Felsen and Regina Degen during their forced stay in the province of Limburg, got married and had children after the war. He continued to cherish fond memories of Benedikt and Regina who took him out for walks during their stay at the family farm. In 2012 Louis Paulissen visited Kazerne Dossin to learn about their fate.

During a visit to Kazerne Dossin in 2012, Louis Paulissen, son of the family in Limburg that hosted Benedikt Felsen and Regina Degen in 1941, permitted digitisation of the family photos that depicted the Jewish couple.

Louis Paulissen, 2012