Sara Weis-ova. Collection

Sara Weis-ova was born on 16 July 1914 in Borzhava, Czechoslovakia. Her parents were Bernhard Weis and Zeni Steinberger-ova. She arrived in Belgium in autumn 1938, where she settled in Antwerp at Jan de Voslei 2 working as a service maid for Adolf Radbill,, Berchem at Merodelei 37 with a certain Mr. Friedman who gave her some money for household tasks, and Borgerhout at Turnhoutschebaan 184 before moving back to Antwerp at Consciencestraat 36 in 1942. At Turnhoutschebaan she lived with her aunt Chaja Gutkind and her nephew Gilbert Furcage. She had no official profession, but functioned as a sort of nanny for Gilbert Furcage. In the beginning of August 1942, Sara Weis-ova received an Arbeitseinsatzbefehl, an order to 'perform forced labour' in Eastern Europe. Chaja Gutkind and Gilbert Furcage tried to convince her not to follow this order, yet on 11 August Sara Weis-ova nevertheless admitted herself to the SS-Sammellager Mecheln in the Dossin barracks. Here she was registered as nr. 494 on the deportation list of Transport III. On 15 August 1942, she was forced to get on a train and deported with Transport III to Auschwitz-Birkenau. The crammed third-class passenger train makes an ominous journey past cities such as Leuven, Eupen, Cologne, Kassel, Erfurt, Dresden, Goerlitz, Liegnitz, Breslau and Katowice, before finally reaching Auschwitz-Birkenau. Upon arrival at Auschwitz-Birkenau on 17 August 1942, 2/3 of the occupants are immediately put to death. Systematic extermination now takes precedence over deployment as labour in the labour camps. Sara Weis-ova perished.

On 20 November 2023 Gilbert Furcage kindly permitted Kazerne Dossin to digitise two photos from 1941. Gilbert had come to Kazerne Dossin that day to record the name of his former Jewish nanny Sara Weis-ova for the 'Every name matters' project.

Gilbert Furcage