Kichelmacher-Edel family. Collection

Lesley Greenwald is a granddaughter of Isaac (Moszek Icek) Kichelmacher and Bella Edel. Isaac was born near Lublin in 1919. When he was a teenager he and his family moved from Poland to Antwerp after his father had moved there alone two years earlier. In Antwerp they found a community life both religious and non-religious. At fifteen years old, Isaac started working in the fur trade for a Jewish man named Knoll. The Kichelmacher family home located at 12 Van der Meydenstraat in Borgerhout (Jacob, Chana, Isaac, Ruchla, Zlata and Szmul all lived there prior to the whole family). At the beginning of the war, Isaac was taken to Breendonk as a prisoner. He is said to have been liberated from there thanks to Queen Elisabeth. Later in summer of 1942 he received a summons for forced labour in northern France with Organisation Todt. Isaac left Antwerp with the train on Thursday 14 August 1942, the day before the first raid in the Jewish neighbourhood of Antwerp. He was sent to the camps of Dannes-Camiers where detainees had to build bunkers, wearing civilian clothes. The forced labourers had been told that if they were going to work that their families would be left alone. Very early on however, a friend of Isaac told him the tragic news that his parents were taken away. On 31 October 1942, Isaac together with other forced labourers was deported from France, via Mechelen (without stopping in the Dossin barracks) to Auschwitz-Birkenau with Transport XVI-XVII. He had hoped to find his parents interned there, but his parents and siblings were all already murdered after their deportation. Upon arrival in Auschwitz, Isaac was selected for labour, and received a tattoo on his arm of the number 72576 and of a star. Isaac survived more than two years in the harsh conditions of the Auschwitz camp and the death marches as well. After four or five days on the train, the prisoners were brought to Buchenwald, and then to Terzin where they were liberated by the Russian army. Unable to sleep, he asked for extra sleeping pills in the hospital. Isaac was repatriated to Lyon by plane, then to Paris by first class train and from there to Brussels. For a while, Isaac stayed in a convalescent home. After the war, Isaac started working in the fur trade again, and met his future wife Bella Edel, born in Antwerp on 24 July 1923. Her father, Mordechai, had migrated to Belgium from Russia. Mordechai Edel was a diamond cutter who worked for Tolkowski. They were very Orthodox. Mordechai was married three times and had five children. His first wife was Braindel Leah Grabiner. They had three children who were born in England: Shaya Szaja Icek Charles, Mary and Hannah (Annette). Braindel passed away and Mordechai then married Chana Anna (Malka). Chana Anna is the mother of the next two children, Bertha (Bella) and Sarah. Mordechai's third wife was Miriam Waidengarten. Mordechai and Miriam perished along with Annette and Sarah. Mary returned to England prior to the war. Bella’s sister went to Beitar Trumpeldor. Bella went with Charles and his family from France and then to Switzerland. When she returned to Antwerp, the neighbours had silverware and vases from the family which were not returned. Isaac and Bella got married on 2 July 1946 at the synagogue of the Oostenstraat, 4 months after meeting her and within a year they had twins, Lucienne and Henri-Marcel. When the Korean war started, the family got very worried. Bella wanted to get away and so they migrated to Canada in 1951. There Isaac started working right away. It was very difficult for Isaac and Bella to find a home for them and their two children, as they did not have a network and did not go through JDC or HIAS. Isaac never mentioned the concentration camp to his children and also did not do much with their Jewishness with them. Lucienne (Lucy) married Michael Feldman. They had two daughters: Andrea and Lesley. The Kay family are the descendants of Bella Kay (born Edel) and Isaac Kay (born Moszek Icek Kichelmacher). Henri Kay married Esther. They had two children: Brian and Jacqueline. Jos and Josée were one of the very close friends of Bella and Isaac once they settled in Toronto. Kitty Tepperman is the daughter of Jos Peretz. Jos published his memoirs “The Endless Wait”, in which he documents in detail about the war (on Sam Meljado, the soccer player who perished and was with him at Les Mazures), how Jos Peretz escaped from Les Mazures and how his fiancé Josée (previously known as Esther) and his mother visited him when he was there. He describes the order of the days, the relations with the local population in the area of the camp and his escape (together with Harry Reicher, Yaël Reicher’s father).

On 3 December 2022, Lesley Greenwald permitted Kazerne Dossin to digitally archive 84 pictures and 5 documents in this collection. On 9 August 2023, Lesley Greenwald permitted the digital addition of 14 more documents to this collection.

Lesley Greenwald