Haber-Low family. Collection

Sender alias Alexander Haber was born on 2 September 1890 in Zabno, Poland, as the son of Salomon Haber and Giesela Blitz. Sender became a diamond merchant and immigrated to Belgium in June 1923. He settled at Ramstraat 10 in Antwerp. However, soon afterwards, he emigrated to Austria. On 3 January 1926, Sender officially married Frimet or Frimah alias Frida Low in Vienna. Frimet had been born on 11 January 1895 in Sedziszow, Poland, as the daughter of Nuchem Low and Altice Lichtmann. Exactly two weeks after their municipal wedding, on 17 January 1926, Frimet gave birth to a daughter named Sonja. In Summer 1933 the Haber-Low family fled to Belgium, where they first lived in a hotel in Knokke before settling in Antwerp in early October 1933. A son named Salomon alias Sylvain was born in the port city twelve days later, on 18 October 1933. The family subsequently lived at Pretoriastraat 96 in Berchem, but later moved to Marsstraat 55. As of April 1936 Sender, Frimet and their children lived at Cruyslei 88 in Deurne where they still resided when Nazi-Germany invaded Belgium on 10 May 1940. During the occupation, the Haber-Low family was forced to obey the anti-Jewish decrees. They registered in the municipal Jewish register at the end of 1940, became members of the Association of Jews in Belgium in March 1942 and wore the yellow star of David as of June 1942. In Summer 1942, when large raids were organised in Antwerp, the Haber-Low family started looking for a hiding place. Their landlord brought them in contact with his daughter and son-in-law, Diane and Camille Tytgadt, who hid Sender, Frimet, Sonja and Salomon in the Tytgadt family apartment, which was situated on the second floor of a building located at Houtemstraat in Berchem. Diane and Camille also took in Frimet’s aunt Cirla Bakenroth, married Low (born on 15 December 1880 in Schodnica, Poland, today Skhidnytsia, Ukraine), Frimet’s cousin Berta Low (born on 17 April 1904 in Schodnica) and Berta’s young children Arthur Abraham Hochberger (born on 25 August 1934 in Vienna) and Dwora Debora Hochberger (born on 10 February 1939 in Vienna). The Hochberger-Low family had been arrested during the second anti-Jewish raid in Antwerp (night of 28 on 29 August 1942) and Berta and the children had been held at Cinema Plaza that night, but Berta had been able to bribe an SS officer to let them go, after which they also went into hiding. Mid-January 1943 the Haber-Low and Hochberger-Low families were denounced. Sender and Frimet Haber-Low and their daughter Sonja Haber, as well as Cirla Bakenroth, her daughter Berta Low and her granddaughter Dwora were arrested during a raid on their hiding place. All were deported from the SS-Sammellager Mecheln (Dossin barracks) to Auschwitz-Birkenau via transport XX on 19 April 1943 and were murdered. Their rescuer, Camille Tytgadt, was also arrested and deported, but he survived several concentration camps and returned to Antwerp in 1945. Only two members of the Haber-Low and Hochberger-Low families survived the war. When their hiding place on the second floor was raided, Berta Low’s son Arthur Hochberger was playing downstairs. Camille Tytgadt was able to hide the boy in the garden of his neighbours. The child was subsequently taken to Camille’s aunts living at Avenue Fonsny in Saint-Gilles. Arthur Hochberger was eventually hidden at the Home Reine Elisabeth in Jamoigne where he survived the war. He later emigrated to Israel. The second family member to survive the war was Salomon Sylvain Haber. A few days before the raid on his family’s hiding place, Salomon had been transferred to the home of Camille Tytgadt’s sister and brother-in-law Ernest and Virginie Van Hecke-Tytgadt, located at Frederik Burvenichstraat 124 in Gentbrugge. There, Salomon took on the false name Bob Van Hecke. He remained in Gentbrugge until Liberation. In July 1945, Salomon went to live with his maternal aunt Blanka Low in Sweden. Unable to settle there, he returned to the Tytgadt family in Gentbrugge in 1947. Salomon studied, married and had five children. He passed away in Belgium on 22 November 2000.

On 29 October 1998, Sylvain Haber kindly donated reproductions of two photos from his family archive to the Jewish Museum of Deportation and Resistance, predecessor of Kazerne Dossin.

Sylvain Haber, 1998