Lajbman family papers
Extent and Medium
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Creator(s)
- Jacques Leibman
Biographical History
Isaac Lajbman (later Jacques Leibman, 1931-2011) was born on 1931 June 22 in Brussels, Belgium to Abram (later Abe Leibman, 1904-1990) and Chaja Sura (née Radziejewski, later Helen Leibman, 1907-1991) Lajbman. Abram and Chaja moved from Poland to Belgium in the interwar period, and Abram worked as a leather goods manufacturer. Isaac had two brothers, Bernard (b. 1938) and Raymond (b. 1946). The Lajbman family remained in Brussels after the German invasion. In the spring of 1942 Isaac's parents secured false papers for themselves and found hiding places for the children. Abram lived under the assumed name of Franz Joseph Dupont and Chaja under the name Helene Yvonne Duviensant. Isaac and Bernard were first hidden in Wilrijk (near Antwerp) and then in Marcinelle (near Charleroi). In both places food and sanitation were very poor, so in September 1942 they were moved to the village of Tourinnes-Saint-Lambert. There they lived with two separate families: Isaac with Alphonse and Marie Quintin, and Bernard with the Ravet family. Both families treated the children as one of their own until liberation. Isaac's mother, who paid for their upkeep, was able to visit them once a month. After the war the Lajbman family was reunited and moved to Ixelles, where they remained until immigrating to the United States. Abram, Chaja, and Bernard immigrated in 1953, and were sponsored by Chaja’s relatives Philip and Al Rothstein. Isaac immigrated to the United States separately after he finished his Belgian military service.
Archival History
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Jacques Leibman
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Rosie Leibman
The collection was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum by Jacques Leibman in 2002.
Scope and Content
The collection documents the Holocaust-era experiences of Abram and Chaja Lajbman and their sons Isaac (later Jacques Leibman) and Bernard in Belgium. Included are biographical material, immigration papers, and photographs that document Isaac and Bernard’s survival in German-occupied Belgium as hidden children, Abram and Chaja’s false identities, and their immigration to the United States in 1953. Biographical materials include Abram and Chaja’s false identification cards, receipts for care packages of food sent to Chaja’s family in Belgium, Isaac’s Belgian military documents and a memoir, and restitution documents. Immigration papers document Chaja’s relatives Philip and Al Rothstein’s sponsorship of their immigration to the United States, Isaac’s ticket and travel documents for his immigration via the SS Ile de France, and letter to the American Embassy in Israel by Chaja on behalf of her sister Szyfra Grosman. Photographs include depictions of the pre-war Lajbman and Radziejewski families, Isaac and Bernard as hidden children, Isaac’s grandfather Jonah Lajbman in the Łódź ghetto (copyprint), Jewish soldiers in the Polish Army (Abram’s brother is second from right), the Quintin family, and the death notice for Philippe Laurent Cleeremans, whom Isaac befriended while hidden at Tourinnes-Saint-Lambert.
System of Arrangement
The collection is arranged as three series: Series 1: Biographical material, 1939-2007 Series 2: Immigration, 1950-1959 Series 3: Photographs, circa 1930-1979
People
- Jacques Leibman
- Lajbman, Abram, 1904-1990.
- Lajbman, Chaja, 1907-1991.
- Lajbman, Bernard.
- Leibman, Jacques, 1931-2011.
Corporate Bodies
- Belgium. Army
Subjects
- Identification cards--Forgeries--Belgium.
- Holocaust survivors--Belgium.
- Jewish families--Belgium.
- Hidden children (Holocaust)--Belgium.
- Belgium.
- United States--Emigration and immigration.
Genre
- Photographs.
- Document