Georges May. Collection

Georges May was born in Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, Brussels, on 7 October 1908. As of birth he held Belgian nationality. His family was well-to-do and well-connected. Georges’ father, Joseph May (born on 30 January 1870 in Frankfurt, Germany), the son of a banker, was the director of numerous industrial companies and banks such as the Chemin de Fer Bruxelles-Lille et Calais, the Banque belge des Chemins de Fer and the Banque de Crédit anversois. He was also president of the Communauté israélite de Bruxelles and of the Consistoire central israélite de Belgique. He held the latter position until his death on 13 May 1935. Georges’ mother, Jeanne De Bauer (born on 28 August 1882 in Ostend, Belgium), was a philanthropist. As the daughter of chevalier Raphael de Bauer and Alice Lambert, Jeanne was an active member of Jewish welfare organisations during the Interbellum. Georges’ maternal grandfather Raphael, as a young man, had been the protégé of baron de Hirsch, after which Raphael held high positions in many financial and industrial enterprises such as the Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas, the Banque d'Outremer, the Banque du Congo belge and the Compagnie du Chemin de Fer du Bas-Congo. Raphael de Bauer was in close contact with the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and with the Belgian royal court. He was knighted in Austria in 1879 and in Belgium in 1884. Like his father and both grandfathers Georges May became active in the financial sector, working for the Banque de Crédit anversois. When Nazi-Germany invaded Belgium on 10 May 1940, Georges lived at Avenue Grand Champ 205 in Woluwé-Saint-Pierre, Brussels, with his non-Jewish wife Angèle Wybo (born on 1 March 1908 in Ixelles, Brussels) whom he had married in 1936. Georges May obeyed the anti-Jewish decrees installed as of 28 October 1940. He registered in the municipal Jewish register on 30 November 1940 and became a member of the Association of Jews in Belgium (AJB) in Spring 1942. On 1 July 1942 he accepted a job with the AJB, working as a receptionist, a janitor and a bailiff for the Brussels branch of the Association. Georges’ mother Jeanne de Bauer tried to continue her pre-war welfare work through the AJB by becoming president of the Fonds d’Assistance May-Didisheim and later of the Oeuvre d’assistance aux Malades Nécessiteux. Meanwhile she also took care of her elderly mother Alice Lambert with whom she lived together at Rue Florence 39 in Ixelles, Brussels. In the course of 1943 Georges changed jobs within the ranks of the AJB, becoming an escort truck driver, delivering food and equipment to the schools and children’s homes under AJB supervision. He also had to present proof of his wife’s non-Jewish parentage to the Sicherheitspolizei-Sicherheitsdienst. His marriage protected Georges from arrest and from deportation, but not his relatives. His mother Jeanne, his maternal grandmother Alice Lambert and his maternal uncle chevalier Robert de Bauer were arrested during the raid on Belgian Jews in the night of 3 on 4 September 1943. A request to intervene was sent to Queen Elisabeth and, being well-connected, the Belgian royal court indeed intervened on behalf of the de Bauer family. Mid-September 1943 Jeanne, Robert and their mother Alice were transferred from the Dossin barracks to the Jewish elderly home in Scheut where Jeanne de Bauer continued her welfare work and became the (unofficial) director. All three survived the war in Scheut and returned home in September 1944. Georges May and his wife Angèle Wybo also survived the war, as did Georges’ brother Jules May (born on 24 August 1902 in Watermael-Boitsfort, Brussels) who had fled to the United Kingdom and who served in the British army during the war.

In 2022 Denis Van der Linden sent the documents in this collection via regular mail to the Forum der Joodse Organisaties (Flanders Forum of Jewish organisations). He had found the items when he bought the house in Woluwé-Saint-Pierre where Georges May and his wife Angèle Wybo lived during and after the war. Regina Sluszny, president of the Forum, subsequently donated the original items to Kazerne Dossin.

Denis Van der Linden, 2022