Jozua Deutsch. Collection

Jozua alias Jozef Deutsch was born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, on 28 August 1914, as the son of diamond merchant Paul Deutsch and his wife Golda alias Augusta Spira. The family was of Hungarian nationality and settled permanently in Belgium, in 1920. Jozua became a diamond cutter, but also worked as a mechanic. The family first settled at Provinciestraat 104 in Antwerp, and after living in Kalmthout from 1931 to 1933, created a home for themselves at Waterloostraat 16 in Berchem. When Nazi-Germany invaded Belgium on 10 May 1940, Jozua lived by himself at Van Diepenbeeckstraat 68 in Antwerp. However, in November 1940 he moved back in with his parents Paul and Augusta, and his younger sisters Frederica (born on 7 March 1922 in Antwerp) and Elsa Maria (born on 26 September 1924 in Antwerp). The family members obeyed the anti-Jewish decrees, registering themselves in the municipal Jewish register in December 1940. Jozua took on a job with the Hilfe für Zurückgebliebenen, because of which the Association of Jews in Belgium granted him a work permit on 10 June 1942. His AJB employment status would protect him at least temporarily from deportation. On 1st December 1943, Jozua joined the armed resistance and became a member of the Armée Secrète or Secret Army. He was arrested and interned at the Begijnenstraat prison in Antwerp on 3 August 1944. Jozua was liberated a month later, on 4 September 1944, when allied troops arrived in the port city. His father Paul and sisters Frederica and Elsa Maria also survived the war, his mother Augusta had passed away in Antwerp on 16 May 1943. After Liberation, Jozua received several decorations from the Belgian government, including the Commemorative Medal 1940-1945 with two crossed sabers and the Cross for Political Prisoners of 1940-1945. He also became a member of AMISAS, the association of former members of the Secret Army resistance network. In 1957 Jozua obtained Belgian nationality and by 1961 he owned a diamond saw factory in Antwerp.

Copies of the two diplomas, issued to Jozua Deutsch after the war to honor his work as a resistance fighter, were entrusted to the Jewish Museum of Deportation and Resistance (JMDR), predecessor of Kazerne Dossin, by JMDR president Natan Ramet on 8 November 1995. Jozua Deutsch himself entrusted the other original items to the museum in 2004.

Natan Ramet and Jozua Deutsch, 1995 and 2004