Gemeiner-Lewy family. Collection

Moise Josef Gemeiner was born in Krakow, Poland, on 30 March 1906 as the son of Salomon Gemeiner and Chewa Plessner. Moise became a furrier and immigrated to Belgium in 1929. While working in the fur trade he met the Polish modiste Rosa Lewy, who had been born in Borgerhout, Belgium, on 18 January 1911 as the daughter of Isaac Meyer Lewy and Iska Bjalkower. On 25 April 1933 they married at the municipality of Antwerp and on 14 May 1933 their religious marriage was blessed by rabbi Ekstein. Moise Josef, known as Joske, opened his own pelt shop at Provinciestraat 143 in Antwerp. On 31 October 1939 Rosa gave birth to their son Salomon Liber Gemeiner. The family still lived at Provinciestraat 143 when Nazi-Germany invaded Belgium on 10 May 1940. Joske, Rosa and Salomon obeyed the anti-Jewish decrees. Joske registered his family in the municipal Jewish register on 20 December 1940. They all became members of the Association of Jews in Belgium on 29 April 1942 and Joske and Rosa wore the yellow star of David as of June 1942. On 14 July 1942 Joske Gemeiner was deported from the central train station in Antwerp to Northern France. He and over 2250 other Jewish men from Belgium had been summoned by the Belgian Arbeidsambt (National Work Bureau) to go work in Northern France as slave laborers for Organisation Todt, the German enterprise building the Atlantic Wall. Joske was held at the Calais and at the Isques labour camps before being deported from Northern France to Auschwitz-Birkenau via Transport XVII on 31 October 1942. Although he was selected to perform forced labor upon arrival and although the number 72514 was tattooed on his arm, he did not survive. Rosa Lewy and her son Salomon Gemeiner stayed behind in Antwerp. On 26 August 1942 Rosa heard that her parents Isaac Meyer Lewy and Iska Bjalkower had been picked up. The couple had received a work order (Arbeitseinsatzbefehl) and was being taken to the Dossin barracks. Rosa rushed over to the central train station where she saw her parents board the train to Mechelen, carrying only a small suitcase. When a German soldier discovered Rosa at the platform he wanted to force her onto the train to join her parents, but another one decided to let her go because she was so pretty. Rosa returned home, relieved because she had left Salomon alone when she had rushed over to her parents. Isaac and Iska were deported from the Dossin barracks to Auschwitz-Birkenau via transport VI on 29 August 1942. Both were murdered. Rosa and Salomon subsequently went into hiding, passing through several hiding places before settling at Desguinlei 44 in Antwerp. There they lived in the basement of the house of miss Vandoren who used to work for Joske and Rosa. Rosa died her hair blond and she used several false IDs, pretending to be Coleta Avezals from Schoten, or Anna Opdebeeck and Virginie Stevens from Antwerp. The documents were provided to her by police officer René Troch and allowed her to obtain ration stamps and food for her and her son. Rosa and Salomon succeeded in staying together for the complete duration of the war and both survived. After Liberation Rosa Lewy opened the fur and hat shop Maison Parisienne at Pelikaanstraat in Antwerp. In the mid-1950s she married Herszek alias Herman Cyngiser. Salomon Gemeiner became a hairdresser. He married and had two sons. Salomon passed away on 11 December 2021.

After Salomon Gemeiner was interviewed by historian Herman Vandormael for the book "Verborgen Oorlogsjaren" Salomon donated the original five documents and four of the photos in this collection to the Jewish Museum of Deportation and Resistance, predecessor of Kazerne Dossin, via Vandormael on 12 April 2010. On 15 June 2022 Salomon Gemeiner's widow Liliane Van Nynatten and his daughter-in-law Sandra Vanmarsnille donated the original photo of the Gemeiner shop front as well as the original desk to Kazerne Dossin.

Salomon Gemeiner via Herman Vandormael, 2010, and Liliane Van Nynatten, widow of Salomon Gemeiner, 2022