Frajda Mantel. Collection

Frajda Mantel was born in Praszka, Poland, on 1 May 1899. She became a seamstress. Around 1923, Frajda emigrated to Belgium where she religiously married leather worker Isaak Turczynski, (born in Zgierz, Poland, on 27 February 1897). The couple was religious and held Zionist beliefs. Frajda would give birth to two children: a daughter named Sonia Turczynski, who was born in Etterbeek on 5 April 1924, and a son named Norbert Mantel who was born in Brussels on 30 April 1930. During the war, the Turczynski-Mantel family lived at Rue Transvaal 16 in Anderlecht. Frajda and her husband Isaak obeyed the anti-Jewish laws installed in Belgium. They registered in the municipal Jewish register in December 1940, they became members of the Association of Jews in Belgium in Spring 1942, and, as of June 1942, they wore the yellow Star of David. Frajda Mantel was arrested at her family home on 15 September 1943, and was transferred to the SS-Sammellager Mecheln (Dossin barracks) the same day. She was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau via transport XXIIA on 20 September 1943. Frajda did not survive. Her husband Isaak and her children Sonia and Norbert went into hiding. Norbert was hidden by Mrs. Moens and at the college de Chimay. All three of them survived the war.

On 23 June 1997, Sonia Turczynski-Teper, daughter of Frajda Mantel, kindly donated her mother's original identity card (A001099) to the Jewish Museum of Deportation and Resistance, predecessor of Kazerne Dossin. Sonia passed away in 1998. Her relatives donated the second document (A011414) on 28 October 2010 on her behalf, after which this item too was added to the collection.

Sonia Turczynski-Teper, 1997 and 2010