Fred Kader Shoah Foundation Testimony

Today is November 19th, 1995. The name of the survivor is Fred Kader, who was born as Jeruzalski. And the interviewer is Sheryl Tatelman. We're in Omaha, Nebraska, in the United States, and we'll be interviewing in English. I'm Sheryl Tatelman, and I'm here with Fred Kader. And we're in Omaha, Nebraska, and we'll be doing the interview in English.

Could you tell us your name, please?

Fred Kader. Actually, my original name was Fred Jeruzalski. Or in Belgium where I was born, in French was really Francois. The original name is actually Polish, to make it even more complicated. It's really Francisek, but being born in Belgium, I always really became more French, and so the name Francois is really what I went by in Belgium.

So you were born as Franciszek Jeruzalski.

Right.

And could you spell Jeruzalski for us?

J-E-R-U-Z-A-L-S-K-I.

And how did your name become Frans or Francois?

Well, during the war, while I was hidden, I was called Frans, which is -- may well be the Flemish version of the French, which is Francois. And so I was really Frans Jeruzalski during the war. After the war, living in Brussels, in the French part of Belgium, I became Francois. And then I became Fred when I moved to, and when I was brought to Montreal by a great aunt. That's when I converted it to English, so now I became a Fred. But that's where I added the name Kader from my great aunt's married name. And so that's how I finally became Fred Jeruzalski Kader.

And how long have you had that name, Fred Jeruzalski Kader.

I've used that name ever since 1949 when I came to Montreal from Belgium.

What were your parents' names?

My father's name was Jacob Jeruzalski. My mother's name was Basza-Ryfka Krysztal. And they're both originally from Poland.

And they were originally from Poland, and that's why you had the Polish name.

Name, right. That's why I was a Polish citizen, originally even though I was born in Belgium.

When were you born?

I was born July 1938. I was born July 20th, 1938 in Antwerp in Belgium.

And did you have brothers and sisters?

Yes, I found out not until after the war that indeed we had a big family. My father was married twice. And so I've got a half-sister and a half-brother from my father's first marriage. And then when his wife died, you know, it was the custom in Europe, you marry the sister of the person you're married to if they're still single in the old custom, customary way back in Europe. And so I've got actual brothers and sisters from my father's second marriage. For the first marriage, I had a half- sister, Rachel Gitel. And then there was another son from that first marriage. And that was Felix. And then when my father remarried to my mother, there were two older brothers. There was a Ignace and an older brother, Paul. And then I was next in line. And then there was a younger brother that I had, Jules. He actually died during the War of natural causes back in 1941.

Well, do you have any memories of this family from before the war?

No, I really don't. This is a. . . In fact, first I found out about my family was when the organizations after the war were trying to obtain information for survivors. And from my uncle who found me after the war, I was able to get some history as to what was what with my family. But even then, after the war, when I was with my uncle, I was all of seven years old. And a lot of it just really didn't impress on me as much as it probably should have. But it's only through obtaining information through the organizations that helped me, for example, after the war while I was in Montreal, for example, in regards to information needed for reparation from Germany, that I found out where we used to live, where my parents actually were when they were born, and who my family was. But all of this is all information that I have obtained since I got older and which I really didn't know at all, really before.

But you do know that you were a Polish citizen because your parents were both originally Polish?

Correct.

And when did they move to Belgium?

Well, actually, my family from what I gathered from the records, originally left Poland and were actually in Germany. And this happened in 1920s. In fact, my sister was born in Berlin, and my half-sister and Felix, my half-brother was actually born in Hamburg. And this goes back to 1920, 1922. And then when my father remarried, my oldest actual brother, Ignace, is already born in Belgium, and that's 1932. So my family moved, escaping from what I gather. That's what I found out from talking to people in Belgium who actually knew my family. Michael Goldberg is a lives in Belgium, and he also was hidden in the war where I was. And he actually knew my family because they met his family and my family. This was even before I was born, obviously. They knew each other in Germany, in Berlin, living as neighbors. And then both families actually left Germany and went to live in Belgium at the same time. From what I gather when there was all the upheavals in Europe. In 1919, the Russian Revolution, the Polish king and, I would say, Polish government was afraid that Jews were going to do the same thing in Poland. And that's when the Pogram started, from the natural history of what happened to Jews in Europe. And that's when they left and went to the, quote, "enlightened country" of Germany, only to get out of there in the 1930s. In the 1930s, when problems started again, obviously at the time when Hitler was coming to power. And so the family moved from Germany and went into Belgium, which was quite a safe refuge for Jews at that time. And so that's why I was born in Belgium.

And do you have any memories at all of your family from before the war?

No, there's no really recollections that I have. There's no pictures. There are family pictures that my uncle had in Belgium and my cousin has still in Belgium, still living there. But we don't know who's who. So there's pictures of people in the uniforms of the Polish Army and the Polish Lancers. And even though my uncle told me that my father had been in the Polish Army as a Lancer at some point in the past, we really don't know from looking at the pictures who's who. And I've never seen pictures of the brothers and sisters. They don't have any recollection.

Well, what are some of your earliest memories?

Well, the earliest memories, I guess, now in retrospect, I know, are really referred to the time that the Holocaust was going on in Europe and in Belgium. As a child, you always wonder what do you really recall and what do you remember people telling you? But I do recall very early on walking the streets. And now in retrospect, I understand that that's when I was separated from my mother. And that was the beginning of being able to survive. In Antwerp there was a raffle and Jews being sent out to their deaths by the Holocaust to Auschwitz. And from what I found out from speaking to an aunt on my uncle's side, the same uncle who found me after the war, as part of the raffle that went on in Antwerp that I was with my mother when she was being deported from Antwerp. And by train, the Jews were being sent from all over Belgium to Malines, which was a deportation site. There was a deportation camp just outside of Brussels. And I was with my mother at that time. And from the train station itself, from what I gathered from this aunt, my mother told me to just walk away and to just get out of the train station. And that's what I did. So I was four at that time. And I guess walking the streets relates to the time that when I was separated from my mother, she went on to her death. And I fortunately, instead of being picked up by the Germans, was picked up by a nun from one of the religious orders. And the only thing I remember is that I realized, much later on, when I saw pictures on TV, the nuns used to wear these long, long, big, white head-dressing head-pieces with the flowing thing in the back that registered. It meant something to me. And so I was saved because I was, while walking the streets of Antwerp after that picked up by a nun and I was that way saved and sent to be hidden in a home where the Jewish children children were being hidden at that time. In Antwerp, the people were obviously hiding. Jewish children's parents were trying to save their children. My mother obviously hadn't done that, but at least she had me walk away from the train station.

So you know that your mother had asked you to leave, or for some reason you had walked away. Was the rest of your family with you at that time?

No, I think at that time. Actually, this was in September 1942 when the convoy started out of Belgium to Auschwitz. I had a brother who had already been sent to Auschwitz. I think Felix was already gone. He went with one of the most earliest of the convoys out of Belgium in August when the deportation started during the Holocaust in September. My actual two other brothers, I found out, were also already sent and deported deported and were already on the way to Auschwitz also. My sister, I really don't know anything about it. There's no recollection anywhere. There's no records anywhere that she was deported out of Belgium to Auschwitz. All this coming from the German archives. My father had been sent to France to slave labor to work on the dikes, the French dikes, in northern France, the Germans to build the dikes, and for fear of the invasion from the Allied armies. So he, already in August, had been sent and his records from the archives of which, again, I obtained way after the war. That showed that he had been working in France. So the family was already all broken up and split up. Some already gone to their, to their dead to be killed in Auschwitz. So I was with my mother and this was in September itself, the latter part of September.

Of 1942?

Of 1942. And so I was hidden while she went on the train and was deported to Malines and then out to Auschwitz. And I was hidden there for a while near Antwerp in a home called the Good Angels, the home of the Good Angels in near Antwerp. And unfortunately, I know they were hiding myself and other children. There was a total of about six of us. The home got denounced to the Nazis, to the Gestapo. And so we were picked up. And even though I missed the train the first time out of Antwerp, the Nazis made sure I got to Malines anyhow. And so we ended up being sent to Malines. And all of us were whatever happened to the people who ran that home, I don't know.

So you were in a home. When you say there were six of you, there were six Jewish children in this home-

All being hidden.

And were there other children in the home? Do you know?

I don't know. All I know of these six hidden children, because I found out that story again later on from people who ended up in Malines also, who were deported from the orphanage, where they had been also being sent to Malines. Eventually, they managed to survive. They got a chance to leave Malines. And it's from Mrs. Bloom, who ran this orphanage in the Brussels, in Wezembeek Oppem, that she knew how these six children had gotten to Malines, that they found when they were sent, and when they were deported from the orphanage in Wezembeek, they managed to survive because they were allowed to leave Malines. And it's when they left Malines that they picked us up, these six children. And so this is how I once again survived and managed to escape the train going Auschwitz, for the second time.

If I could just go back for a minute to when you were picked up by these nuns. You had left your mother. Your mother had told you to walk away. And you walked the streets in Antwerp and were picked up by these nuns. Do you know whether these nuns were running this orphanage or this place where you were staying? Do you have any memories of that?

I really don't. I remember walking the streets. So I said, you know, this is what I was doing, but how exactly I got to this home that I don't know. And I don't know if it was part of the religious order or if it probably wasn't, I would say, because other Jewish children were being hidden there, and it sounds like I was put there. But the nuns who knew that Jewish children were being hidden there. From what I gather from speaking with Mrs. Bloom, there was a directress of the Wezembeek home, eventually where I was the orphanage. From what she said, it's almost like people knew there was a Jewish children hiding place. At least people were helping to hide. Jewish children were aware of it. But unfortunately, it got denounced.

It got denounced, and you were sent to Malines.

Right, to the deportation camp. And this was sometime in October. So I know I'd been there for a while. But the vibes and the impression that I got from Mrs. Bloom, this was not the longest of time, apparently it was denounced. If you look at the date of the deportation of my mother, which was September 22nd, and by October 30th, I was already in Malines. These days were all documented from what had happened to the German archives that people had made records from, and from what the people who had been sent to Malines from Wezembeek, the days that they were sent. I could not have been in that place hiding, being hidden very long. When Mrs. Bloom and the group from Wezembeek was in Malines, and when they saw us, apparently we, the six of us did not look like we were in the best of health. We [unclear] She stated that we probably had been there for several weeks.

In Malines

In Malines. We were just in the corner of these barracks, which is what Malines was originally, an army barrack. And the way we looked, she said we had been there for several weeks, and who knows what exactly we survived on. We were just in the corner of the barrack when they found us.

And who found you?

There was a group from the orphanage from Wezembeek Oppem at Mrs. Bloom. Mrs. Marie Albert Bloom, Bloom was her maiden name, was the director of what had happened was that this Jewish orphanage was created in September because there were a lot of Jewish children who were left as orphans roaming the streets of Belgium in Brussels. And this home in Wezembeek had actually been a pulmonary sanitarium for TB. And so it was a children's place. And Mrs. Bloom was working there, and she was the only one who had some nursing experience. So when there were a lot of orphaned children roaming the streets through the Jewish organization, and obviously with the acceptance by the occupied German army, they were allowed to create this place for the placement of Jewish children who were orphans. And so the sanitarium got converted to an orphanage. And so if your parents were lost or "deported" or, quote, in those days you weren't deported, they went to "work" somewhere in Europe. It's what the Nazis were saying, but effectively they're on their way to Auschwitz. So if you were born in Belgium and you were under the age of 16, then you could be placed in this orphanage in Wezembeek Oppem, which is little towns which are really suburbs, effectively, of Brussels. And being out in the country, that's why there had been a sanitarium. And Mrs. Marie Albert Bloom being familiar with the place, having had some nursing experience looking after children. So [she] got volunteered to look after the orphanage. Actually, her family, she herself was born in Belgium, and her family actually, from what I gathered from her, some of them had left Belgium to end up now during the Holocaust, and she elected to remain behind and indeed become responsible for these orphaned children. And she was a young lady in the late 20s, I guess, 20s and early 30s, looking after all these orphaned children. Eventually, in time, this orphanage became part of all of the orphanages and known places known to the Nazis where Jewish children were being kept. Everybody was registered who was Jewish. Everybody wore a Jewish star. Everybody had to be, their whereabouts had to be known to the Nazis to the Gestapo. And when it started off as an orphanage for Jewish children, where had lost their parents, actually got incorporated into this major overall organization that Judenrat put together in which the Nazis and the Gestapo were very aware of. What happened was that the home had been started in the beginning of September, 1942, and by October, they had already over 50-odd children there with about seven, eight people, adults, that were looking after the children. Mrs. Marie Albert Bloom was there, his sister, who, now lives in Israel, who survived. Mrs. Marie Albert Bloom still lives in Belgium, in Brussels, but she, her sister, and these other adults, they were looking after this place, and the Nazi commander, the Nazi and the Gestapo people decided the end of October to liquidate the orphanage and to send everybody to Malines and then on to Auschwitz.

Now, you weren't in the orphanage at tha time.

No, I was still being hidden. I was either hidden in the home of the Good Angels, in Antwerp though I was already, at that time, already must have been in Malines, the place having been denounced. And so, October 30th, the orphanage at Wezembeek was liquidated. And the 50-odd children and Mrs. Marie Albert Bloom and her people were sent to Malines on their way to Auschwitz. And so, they got there on October 30th, 1942. And what was happening is that convoys were being started from Malines for the Belgian people, but there were also a lot of Belgian people who were working in France. And so, after they had worked under slave labor for a while, they were being sent back from northern France from having worked there, back to Malines, and from there, the convoy was further loaded with people who were being deported from Belgium itself. And then these convoys from Malines went on into Germany and on into Poland to Auschwitz. And when the group from Wezembeek, with Mrs. Marie Albert Bloom, got there October 30th, the convoy was late in coming from France. And what, of course, was happening at that time that the world denied it, people already knew that these convoys were going to Auschwitz and going to their death. And so, people would escape from the convoys. And since the convoy originated in northern France, near Calais, the people who were being transported on these convoys were people who were still very healthy, who had been working. And so, these people were jumping the train. And, of course, the Nazis would either shoot them if they could or send the dogs after them to get them back. But every time someone else jumped the train, the train would stop and they would try to catch the people who would jump off the trains. And it was for this reason that this went on and on as the train was coming from northern France, that the train was delayed in getting to Malines. And so, I was in Malines at that time, and the Wezembeek people that Mrs. Marie Albert Bloom was looking after also came to Malines, and everybody was waiting for the convoy to come.

And at that time, you would have gone on a transport, presumably to Auschwitz

With the convoy that was coming that day, because that's when we were slated to leave Malines to go to Auschwitz. And so, the convoys, 16 and 17, were late and coming from northern France. And the reason I know the numbers of the convoys, as it turns out, my father and my uncle were on a convoy. Yes. As I had mentioned, he had been sent to work in slave labor in northern France. And so, they were on the convoy coming back at that time in October from northern France. And the convoy finally came to Malines. And at that time, I was already gone. I was fortunately saved by Mrs. Marie Albert Bloom and the people from Wezembeek. What it happened was because the convoy was late and the people were there all day, they were able to eventually, in time, get out of Malines. They were given permission to leave Malines buy their way out. And what happened was that in Malines, in Wezembeek, where Mrs. Marie Albert Bloom was and the children, there were two people who used to work there who were non-Jewish. And at the time, the Gestapo just walked in and said that everybody's leaving. Just take what you got and you don't have to take much. Before they left, the Nazis and the Gestapos told Mrs. Bloom to pay off the money that was due, these two Gentile people who were working at Wezembeek home. And when Mrs. Bloom did that, she paid one of the girls the money. She scribbled the phone number on a piece of paper and put it in with the money. And this young girl realized, of course, what was going on. And the phone number turned out to be the number for the organization that was helping and was responsible for all of the Jewish children in Belgium. And what had happened was that even though the Gestapo and the Nazis knew where all the Jewish children were, there was a parallel organization set up in Belgium. And the Queen Mother of Belgium, was sort of the major figurehead and the one who overseer oversaw all of these orphanages. There was a parallel organization in Belgium itself.