Springer-Chasman family. Collection

Jacques Springer was born in Antwerp, Belgium, on 8 November 1917, as the second son of Szymon Springer (born on 6 January 1885 in Krakow, Poland) and Liba Serl Kunstliger (born on 12 November 1884 in Kalwaria, Poland). Jacques had an older brother named Isidore, who had been born in Antwerp on 23 July 1912. Their father Szymon was a diamond trader, while Liba took care of the children. After Szymon died young, passing away in Antwerp on 16 January 1925, Liba remarried Gilel Judelewsky (born in 1886 in Grodno, Russia) on 2 Augustus 1930. In 1932, Jacques left school and became a diamond polisher apprentice. He fulfilled his military service in 1937 and became a merchant, while his older brother Isidore studied to become an engineer. Liba ran a Jewish bath house in Antwerp. She and her sons all held Belgian nationality. On 10 May 1940, when Nazi-Germany invaded Belgium, the Springer family lived at Somersstraat 40 in Antwerp. Jacques served as a soldier in the Belgian army during the Battle of Belgium. The next two years he and his mother obeyed the anti-Jewish decrees. They registered in the municipal Jewish Register of Belgium, had their ID cards stamped with the mark “Jood-Juif”, became members of the Association of Jews in Belgium and wore the yellow star. In the Summer of 1942, Jacques attempted to reach the allied troops in England. He travelled to southern France and reported himself in the unoccupied zone. Jacques was arrested and held for several months in an internment camp. In November 1942, he was able to return to Belgium under the false identity of Jean Simonet. Back in Antwerp, Jacques Springer found his family home confiscated by German troops. He travelled to Liège where he had an uncle. There he found both his mother and his fiancée Adela Chasman (born on 26 October 1921 in Oespel, Germany) living in hiding. Adela had already joined the resistance, working undercover as an employee at a local welfare organisation linked to the Red Cross. Jacques joined the Front de l’Indépendance [Independent Front] and became the commandant of a unit of armed resistance fighters. He was involved in derailing trains carrying munition and stealing weapons at the FN weapons factory. On 13 August 1943, Jacques was arrested while on his way to his commanding officer when his tram was stopped by Germans. His true identity was discovered and Jaques was held for two weeks at the St Léonard prison in Liège before being sent to Aix-la-Chapelle in Germany and from there to Poland. After three months of imprisonment, he was sent to Auschwitz where the number 174327 was tattooed on his arm. Jacques was ordered to repair broken engines in the Buna factory in Monowitz. At several occasions Adela used Red Cross stamps in the office where she worked to validate her mail and was thus able to send him food parcels from Liège. Jacques subsequently also survived the death marches in January 1945 and was liberated en route by the Soviet Army. He was sent by train to Odessa and then by boat to Cairo, Egypt. Jacques Springer was repatriated to Naples, Italy, in April 1945. He notified his family about his whereabouts, including his future wife Adela who survived the war in hiding. Jacques spent a few weeks in a hospital before his transfer to Brussels on 13 June 1945. On 21 Augustus 1945 he married Adela Chasman. Jacques also immediately started looking for his brother Isidore. Jacques travelled to France later in 1945 where he learned about Isidore’s arrest in Lyon and his execution in 1942. He also lost his stepfather Gilel Judelewsky who didn’t survive deportation from France to Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1942. Jacques Springer was recognised as a resistance fighter by the Belgian government, became a member of the Amicale de l’Armée belge des Partisans and received multiple medals and honorary distinctions.

In 1998 Jacques Springer and his wife Adela Chasman donated digital copies of documents as well as original items to the Jewish Museum of Deportation and Resistance, predecessor of Kazerne Dossin. After the passing of both Jacques and Adela, their children entrusted the family archives to Kazerne Dossin in 2017.

Springer-Chasman family, 1998 and 2017