Class photos of girls attending the Institut Bosquet in Antwerp. Collection

In 1941 Colette Gilles de Fontenailles was a pupil in the fifth / sixth grade of the Institut Bosquet, a French-language school for girls in Antwerp. Among Colette’s classmates were several Jewish girls, including Nini Berneman, Renée Landau and Eugenie Chor. Nini Berneman was born on 7 September 1929 in Berchem. In August 1942 her father Moszek found a hiding place for himself, his wife and his daughters Nini and Ruth with the Gaspard family in Rochefort. The Berneman family took on the false name Bernay, allowing Nini to attend a local school run by the Sisters of Saint-Mary. She and her family survived the war in the Belgian Ardennes. Renée Landau was born on 4 April 1930 in Germany. She and her parents settled in Belgium in 1933. They remained in Belgium until late 1942 after which they made a successful attempt to flee to Switzerland, where they survived the war. Eugenie Chor was born on 21 June 1930. On 30 October 1942 she, her parents Alexandre Chor and Fanny Schor and her little brother Albert were registered at the Dossin barracks. The family was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau via Transport XVII on 31 October 1942. All four family members were murdered.

On 7 November 2023 Colette Gilles de Fontenailles-Van Dooren kindly permitted Kazerne Dossin to digitise two class photos from 1941. Colette had come to Kazerne Dossin that day to record the name of her former Jewish classmate Eugenie Chor for the 'Every name matters' project.

Colette Gilles de Fontenailles-Van Dooren, 2023