Teitelbaum-Ksias family. Collection

Uscher Schaje Teitelbaum (also called Oskar Stamler) was born on 29 April 1910 in Nowy Sacz, Poland, as the youngest of seven siblings. In 1925-1926 his parents Lajzer Stamler and Malka Riva Teitelbaum relocated their family from Germany to Belgium, settling at Lange Kievitstraat 74 in Antwerp. On 24 February 1927, Uscher’s father Lajzer Stamler passed away there. Like his brothers, Uscher became a diamond worker. On 26 July 1932, Uscher Teitelbaum officially married Dora Ksias (sometimes Ksiaz). Dora had been born on 5 November 1910 in Cologne, Germany, as the daughter of Yechiel and Leah Ksias-Weinberger. After their wedding, Uscher and Dora made a home for themselves at in Antwerp. They would have three daughters, all born in the port city: Bertha on 10 January 1933, Malka on 2 January 1936 and Bella on 21 January 1937. In February 1939 Dora’s parents Yechiel and Leah Ksias-Weinberger fled from Germany to Belgium, and settled at Thaliastraat 64 in Antwerp. On 10 May 1940, Nazi-Germany invaded Belgium. The Teitelbaum-Ksias family lived at Plantin en Moretuslei 87 at the time. Upon the invasion the family fled to France, as did Dora’s parents Yechiel and Leah Ksias-Weinberger. Uscher’s widowed mother Malka Riva Teitelbaum stayed behind in Antwerp. Uscher, Dora and their three daughters finally settled in Orgueil, unoccupied southern France. In 1942, Uscher Teitelbaum was arrested and was forced to work as a member of a group of foreign forced labourers (GTE 302), while he was held at the Septfonds internment camp. He was deported from Drancy to Auschwitz-Birkenau via transport 25 on 28 August 1942. Uscher Teitelbaum did not survive. His parents-in-law Yechiel and Leah Ksias-Weinberger were arrested in Lacaune, where they had been forced to settle, and were sent to the Saint-Sulpice camp and then to Drancy, from where they were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau via transport 30 on 9 September 1942. Yechiel and Leah were also murdered. At the advice of Rabbi Kaspe, Dora Ksias placed her daughters Bertha, Malka and Bella Teitelbaum in a children's home in Marseille, run by rabbi Schneour Zalman Schneersohn. Dora lived separately elsewhere. Upon the Nazi-invasion of the unoccupied French zone, the Teitelbaum children were placed in hiding near Toulouse. After six months, Dora and her daughters were reunited in Megève, France. They safely arrived in Switzerland on 28 September 1943. Upon Liberation, Dora and her three daughters learned about the deportation of relatives left behind in Antwerp, such as Uscher Teitelbaum’s mother Malka Riva Teitelbaum. Malka had been sent from the SS-Sammellager Mechelen to Auschwitz-Birkenau via transport XIX on 15 January 1943 and had been murdered. Dora and her three daughters emigrated to British mandate Palestine. Eldest daughter Bertha married Michael Schwarz and emigrated to the United States of America, where she had children and grandchildren. Bertha Teitelbaum-Schwarz passed away on 2 April 2022.

On 21 March 2006, Mrs. Bertha Schwarz kindly donated reproductions of four photos in her family archive to the Jewish Museum of Deportation and Resistance, predecessor of Kazerne Dossin.

Bertha Teitelbaum-Schwarz, 2006