Woydislawski-Schwarz family. Collection

Mozek Chaim alias Max Woydislawski was born in Pilica, Poland, on 6 May 1898 as the son of Alter Woydislawski and Perla Gewercman. Max became a merchant and relocated to Elberfeld (today part of Wuppertal), Germany, where he opened his own fabrics store. On 10 May 1929 he married Dwoira alias Dora Schwarz, born in Lodz, Poland, on 25 December 1908, as the daughter of Schaya Schwarz and Rywka alias Regina Diamant. Because of the antisemitic climate in Germany Max and Dora, as of February 1932, tried to obtain visa to emigrate to Belgium, where Dora’s maternal uncle Samuel Diamant lived. However, the Belgian authorities did not grant them the necessary papers. Max and Dora’s son Harald was therefore born in Elberfeld, Germany, on 3 December 1932. On 23 April 1933 Max Woydislawski was finally allowed entry into Belgium. He found living quarters at Lange Kievitstraat 55 in Antwerp and received help from the Komiteit tot Verdediging der Rechten der Joden [Committee for the Defense of the Rights of Jews] to get settled in Belgium. On 30 June 1933 Dora and Harald joined Max in Antwerp, where they lived at Plantin en Moretuslei 131. Max and Dora each obtained a temporary residence permit. When leaving Germany, Dora had to leave behind her mother Regina Diamant and her brothers David Schwarz (born in 1910) and Rudolf Schwarz (born in 1921. David would go on to marry Ilse Hamm in 1936 and emigrated to the United States around 1937. At least on one occasion David and Ilse visited the Woydislawski-Schwarz family in Belgium. In February 1934 Max, Dora and Harald relocated to Brialmontlei 57 in Antwerp. The same year Max was able to invest in the business of Dora’s uncle Samuel Diamant, who was a merchant dealing in English fabrics. This investment consolidated an income for Max, Dora and Harald who were otherwise cut off from most of their possessions which they had to leave behind in Germany. Meanwhile, the family tried to find a way to emigrate oversees. In December 1934 the Belgian authorities suddenly revoked Max and Dora’s temporary Belgian residence permit, due to which they were ordered to leave the country. By April 1935 the Committee for the Defense of the Rights of Jews was able to get Max and Dora’s eviction order annulled, arguing that no other country would take them in after Nazi-Germany took away their nationality and they had become stateless. As a result, Max, Dora and Harald were allowed to stay in Belgium. In May 1938 Dora’s mother Regina Diamant joined them in Antwerp. Dora’s second brother Rudolf stayed behind in Germany, but was able to emigrate to the United States, presumably before 1940. When Nazi-Germany invaded Belgium on 10 May 1940, the Woydislawski-Schwarz family still lived at Brialmontlei in Antwerp. Following the invasion they fled south, but Max, Dora and Harald returned to Antwerp only a few weeks later. On 30 December 1940 they left the port city and moved to Van Campenhoutstraat 19 in Brussels. The family obeyed the anti-Jewish decrees: Max and Dora registered in the municipal Jewish register by the end of 1940, they had their IDs stamped with the mark ‘Jood-Juif’ in Summer 1941, and they became members of the Association of Jews in Belgium in Spring 1942. The form from the Association shows that, by that time, Dora’s mother Regina Diamant was living with Dora’s family. In Fall 1942 Max, Dora, Harald and Dora’s mother Regina went into hiding at Avenue Jules du Jardin 8 in Woluwé-Saint-Pierre, Brussels. While Max, Dora and Harald lived on the first floor, Regina moved into a smaller room above their apartment. Around midnight on 21 June 1943, Nazis came to the house to arrest the family. Max Woydislawski was shot dead in his pajamas in the garden (possibly during an attempt to flee), the fatal shot being fired by Flemish collaborator Corneille Mertens. Official death certificates show that Max Woydislawski died on 22 June 1943. He was first buried at the cemetery in Etterbeek, and was transferred to the cemetery in Putte in 1946. Dora and her son Harald were arrested in their hiding place at Avenue Jules du Jardin 8, while Dora’s mother Regina was able to avoid arrest by hiding away in her room and locking the door. Dora and Harald were taken to the Dossin barracks in Mechelen from where they were able to send a handful of parcel requests to acquaintances, asking them to send food and clothes. Dora and Harald were deported from the Dossin barracks to Auschwitz-Birkenau via Transport XXI on 31 July 1943. Both of them were murdered upon arrival. Dora’s mother Regina Diamant survived the war in hiding in Brussels and joined her sons David and Rudolf in the United States in 1948.

During a reading room visit on 31 July 2010 siblings Max and Debbie Lafer (children of Rochelle Lafer-Schwarz and grandchildren of Rudolf Schwarz, brother of Dora Woydislawski-Schwarz) donated the original documents in this collection to the Jewish Museum of Deportation and Resistance, predecessor of Kazerne Dossin. They also shared digital copies of thirteen photos. During a visit to Kazerne Dossin on 25 January 2024, at the occasion of the placement of stumbling stones in honor of the Woydislawski-Schwarz family in Brussels, Rochelle Lafer-Schwarz and her children Debbie and David donated four original photos to Kazerne Dossin (KD_00842_000001 to KD_00842_000004). Also involved in the creation of this archival collection: Samantha Schwarz (daughter of Rochelle Lafer-Schwarz) and Susan Manor-Schwarz (daughter of David Schwarz, brother of Dora Woydislawski-Schwarz). Historical information on the Schwarz family was provided by Olivier Schwarz (full cousin of Dora Woydislawski-Schwarz as the son of Mathis Schwarz, a brother of Dora’s father Schaya Schwarz).

Rochelle Lafer-Schwarz and her children Debbie, David, Max and Samantha Lafer, Susan Manor-Schwarz and Olivier Schwarz