Salomon Buchenholz. Collection

Salomon Buchenholz was born in Antwerp on 5 May 1901. He became a welder and married Eva Anna Spira, who was born in Krakow, Poland, on 24 October 1897. Their only child, daughter Claudine Monique Buchenholz, was born in Antwerp on 5 March 1929. Due to the war threat Salomon, of Belgian nationality, was drafted into the army in the summer of 1939. On 10 May 1940 Nazi-Germany invaded Belgium. At the time, the Buchenholz-Spira family lived at Belgiëlei 20 in Antwerp. They obeyed the anti-Jewish decrees, registering in the municipal Jewish register in December 1940 and becoming members of the Association of Jews in Belgium in March 1942. Salomon joined the resistance and became a member of the Armée Secrète – Geheim Leger (Secret Army). In the summer of 1942 he was claimed by the Belgian Arbeidsambt (Work Bureau) and deported to northern France. There, Salomon was held as a slave labourer at the Camiers, Dannes and Condette labour camps where he was forced to work for the German enterprise Organisation Todt responsible for building the Atlantic Wall. Salomon escaped and went into hiding. On 16 November 1942 Eva Spira placed her daughter Claudine Monique in hiding at the Institut du Sacré-Coeur du Lindthout in Brussels. Eva herself was arrested three days later, on 19 November 1942, and was taken to the Dossin barracks. Having obtained Belgian citizenship when marrying Salomon, Eva was temporarily protected against deportation. She and several dozen other Belgian Jews were released from the camp in Mechelen on 29 June 1943. After her release, Eva was able to visit her daughter Claudine only once before being arrested during Aktion Iltis (the raid on Belgian Jews) in the night of 3 on 4 September 1943. Eva was deported from the Dossin barracks to Auschwitz-Birkenau via Transport XXIIB on 20 September 1943 and was murdered. Salomon Buchenholz and his daughter Claudine survived the war in hiding. In 1946 they changed their name to Buquenne. Salomon remarried in 1947 and became the head of the Belgian mission in Germany.

Claudine Buquenne, daughter of Salomon Buchenholz, donated the original items in this collection to the Jewish Museum of Deportation and Resistance, predecessor of Kazerne Dossin, in 2006.

Claudine Buquenne, daughter of Salomon Buchenholz, 2006