Lotte Katscher. Collection

Lotte Katscher was born in Vienna, Austria, on 11 June 1921, as the daughter of Sigmund Katscher and Margarethe Singer. Her father Sigmund passed away before the war. In the night of 23 January 1939 Lotte illegally crossed the German border into Belgium. She settled in Antwerp where she awaited her visa for Brazil, meanwhile receiving financial support from her sister Kitty Katscher in the United Kingdom. Lotte had no relatives in Belgium, but on 29 August 1939 she married the textile industry technician Rudolf Goldschmied or Goldschmidt. Rudolf had been born in Vienna, Austria, on 10 July 1914 as the son of Moriz Friedrich Goldschmied and Ludmilla Nasch. Rudolf was forced to flee Austria in November 1938 after Kristallnacht and was awaiting his visa for Peru in Antwerp. On 10 May 1940 Nazi-Germany invaded Belgium. Lotte’s husband Rudolf and thousands of other refugees who had recently arrived from the Reich were arrested by the Belgian authorities as suspects possibly collaborating with the Nazis. Among these ‘suspects’ were many Jews. Rudolf was first detained at Saint-Cyprien. When this camp in southern France flooded, he was transferred to Gurs on 29 October 1940. From there, Rudolf was added to a Groupement des Travailleurs Etrangers (Group of Foreign Labourers) in Égletons, France. Rudolf was deported from Drancy to Auschwitz-Birkenau on 28 August 1942 via Transport 25 and didn’t survive. Lotte Katscher stayed behind in Antwerp by herself. She obeyed the anti-Jewish decrees in Belgium and registered in the municipal Jewish Register. In January 1942, Lotte moved from Antwerp to Brussels. She was arrested at the beginning of the summer and detained at the Saint-Gilles prison before being transferred to the Dossin barracks on 27 July 1942, the day of the opening of the camp. At the barracks, she convinced the camp administration to appoint her as a camp nurse even though she didn’t have any medical training. Lotte was given a position as a member of the camp medical staff, thus taking care of her fellow-detainees, and later convinced the guards to also appoint Sara Eckmann whom Lotte befriended at the camp as a nurse, saving Sara’s life. Both Lotte and Sara were liberated at the Dossin barracks in the night of 3 on 4 September 1944 by the British troops. Lotte returned to Brussels a few weeks after the liberation of the Dossin barracks and tried to rebuild her life. Her sister Kitty had survived the war in the United Kingdom, her mother Margarethe in Shanghai (China). On 1st March 1950 Lotte married clothes manufacturer and businessman Berysz alias Bernard Blinbaum, born on 17 February 1910 in Pabianice, Poland, as the son of Michel Blinbaum and Jacheta Silberschatz. He had migrated to Belgium in 1925 and became a resistance fighter during the war, joining the Mouvement national belge or MNB (Belgian National Movement) in March 1942. Bernard had been arrested on 4 December 1942 and was detained at the Dossin barracks until 26 June 1943 when he was released after providing forged Belgian ID papers delivered by the MNB to the camp administration. Lotte and Bernard left Belgium shortly after their marriage in 1950 and settled in the United States. They would have two children and several grandchildren.

Ronnie Bernard, son of Lotte Katscher, kindly donated digital copies of items from his mother's family archive to Kazerne Dossin in 2018. The images were transferred by Claire Bacman-Kaufman, daughter of Lotte Katscher's lifetime friend Sara Eckmann.

Ronnie Bernard, son of Lotte Katscher, 2018