Izbicki-Balzam family. Collection

Jankiel (Jakob) Izbicki was born on 11 July 1896 in Opatów, Poland, as the son of Abraham Izbicki and Estera Brat. Jankiel became a workman and, on 26 January 1921, he married Cywya Balzam in Krzepice, Poland. Cywya had been born in the small town on 21 January 1898. After their marriage, Jankiel and Cywya emigrated to Duisburg, Germany. In August 1923, Jankiel and Cywya relocated to Belgium and settled at Rue Habart 98 in Marcinelle. Jankiel was immediately employed by the Usines Métallurgiques du Hainaut, a metal plant. On 27 January 1925, in Charleroi, Cywya gave birth to their only child: a son named Ernest. In the years that followed, the Izbicki-Balzam family changed addresses within the Charleroi region multiple times. Jankiel also found other employment, working as a salesman as of the 1930s. When Nazi-Germany invaded Belgium on 10 May 1940, Jankiel and Cywya Izbicki-Balzam lived at Rue de Bruxelles 52 in Dampremy. Cywya’s sister Hanna Balzam was living in the same building with her husband Abram Przedborski. Jankiel, Cywya and their son Ernest obeyed the growing number of anti-Jewish decrees. They registered in the municipal Jewish register at the end of 1940, and they became members of the Association of Jews in Belgium in Spring 1942. Jankiel and Cywya Izbicki-Balzam were arrested under unknown circumstances and were registered at the SS-Sammellager Mecheln (Dossin barracks) on 11 December 1942. From the barracks, they send a request to Marie Bertechants, their neighbour living at Rue de Bruxelles 32 in Dampremy, asking her to send them food and their ration stamps that could be picked up from another neighbour living at Rue de Bruxelles 18. Jankiel and Cywya were deported from the Dossin barracks to Auschwitz-Birkenau via transport XIX on 15 January 1943 and were both murdered. Their son Ernest and Cywya’s sister and brother-in-law Hanna and Abram survived the war.

On 20 March 1995, J. Izbicki kindly donated the original items in this collection to the Jewish Museum of Deportation and Resistance, predecessor of Kazerne Dossin. The nature of the relationship between the donor and the Izbicki-Balzam family is unknown.

J. Izbicki, 1995