Goldberg-Kaufman family. Collection

Aron Lejzer Goldberg was born on 26 February 1904 in Prostyn, Poland. He became a tailor. In August 1924, Aron emigrated to Belgium where he settled in Anderlecht. On 27 July 1929 he married the Polish seamstress Chana Laja Kaufman, who had been born in Zyrardow, Poland, on 1 February 1906, and who had emigrated to Belgium in 1927. Their son Abraham (Albert) had been born in Brussels on 13 February 1929. A daughter named Liliane (Lily) was born on 30 September 1935 in Ixelles. When Nazi-Germany invaded Belgium on 10 May 1940, the Goldberg-Kaufman family lived at Boulevard Maurice Lemonnier 201 in Brussels. Eleven-year-old Abraham was hospitalised at the time and stayed behind in the Belgian capital when Aron and Chana fled to France with their daughter Liliane. However, Aron Goldberg was arrested shortly after their arrival in France. His wife and children would never hear from him again. Aron was interned at the Le Vernet camp and the Pithiviers camp before being deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau via transport 6 on 17 July 1942. Aron Goldberg did not survive. Chana Laja Kaufman returned to Belgium with her daughter Liliane, and retrieved her son Abraham from an orphanage where he had temporarily been placed after the departure of his parents to France. Thereafter, Chana was forced to obey the anti-Jewish decrees installed by the Nazis. In December 1940, she registered herself and her children in the municipal Jewish register of Brussels, and, in Summer 1941, her identity card was stamped with the mark ‘Jood-Juif’. Chana Laja Kaufman was arrested on her way to a job interview when she was arrested. She was registered at the SS-Sammellager Mecheln (Dossin barracks) on 15 October 1942 and was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau via transport XIV on 24 October 1942. She was also murdered. Chana’s children Abraham and Liliane Goldberg were left alone and abandoned. After three days, they were placed in hiding separately. Liliane first lived with two sisters in Woluwé-Saint-Pierre before the Comité de Défense des Juifs (Jewish Defence Committee or CDJ) took her to the farm of Henricus and Philomena Thienpondt-Leemans in Oppem, where she lived as Liliane Golbert until Liberation. Abraham Goldberg was hidden as Albert Gallet with misses Lenain in Watermaeil-Boitsfort, and also survived the war. Upon Liberation, Abraham decided to emigrate to British mandate Palestine and to take his sister Liliane with him. Upon arrival, they first lived at Ben Shemen, a village for teenagers. After two years, Abraham moved to Kibbutz Michman Hanegev. He fought in the Israeli war of independence and then settled at Beer Sheva. Liliane remained at Ben Shemen until she was adopted by the Shapira family in 1950, after which she took on their last name. Liliane became a teacher. Her family continues to live in Israel to this day. In 2016 Yad Vashem awarded the title of Righteous amongst the Nations to Lily Shapira’s rescuers Henricus and Philomena Thienpondt-Leemans.

On 21 March 2006, Lily Shapira (born Liliane Goldberg), kindly donated colour photocopies of four photos from her family archive to the Jewish Museum of Deportation and Resistance, predecessor of Kazerne Dossin.

Lily Shapira, 2006