Celnik-Miliband family. Collection

Jacques (Jacob) Celnik (also Zelnik) was born in Lublin, Poland, on 28 March 1893. He became a hatter and fled Poland during the First World War. Jacques Celnik was arrested in Germany and spent time in a detainment camp before reaching Liège, Belgium, in January 1917. On 1st December 1920, Jacques Celnik married the seamstress Frania Miliband, who was born in Warsaw, Poland, on 15 October 1893. She had emigrated from Warsaw to Saint-Gilles, Brussels, in March 1920. The couple settled in Brussels and started their own leather workshop, in cooperation with Wolf Dembinski, husband of Beyla Milenband and brother-in-law of Frania Miliband. On 18 September 1921, Jacques and Frania’s son Abraham Maurice Celnik was born in Etterbeek, Brussels. The family still lived in the Belgian capital in May 1940. In May 1943, Jacques Celnik and his wife Frania Miliband were arrested and sent to the Dossin barracks. Neither survived deportation to Auschwitz-Birkenau via Transport XXI on 31 July 1943. Their son Abraham Maurice Celnik survived the war, married and had a son whom he named Jacques Celnik. Jacques had several grandchildren and still lives in Belgium.

In 2013, Jacques Celnik, grandson of Jacques Celnik and Frania Miliband, permitted Kazerne Dossin to digitise six Celnik-Miliband family photos.

Jacques Celnik, grandson of Jacques Celnik and Frania Miliband