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Belgium with a population of about 10.7 million, is about the size of
the State of Maryland. It is a multilingual country with Dutch
as the primary language in the northern half, known as the Flemish Region.
French is spoken in the southern half, called the Walloon Region,
while a smaller, German speaking community is located along the eastern
b The term "Low Countries" is used collectively for Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, a reference to the low-lying nature of the land. On May 10, 1940 the Nazis occupation of the entire country began. Some months later, the Nazis launched their anti-Jewish campaign and fifty-three thousand Jews were deported out of 100,000 residing in the country. Jews were able to hide in an area of Belgium that the Germans, during WW 1, also did not occupy. The majority of the Jews living in Belgium at this time, were foreign nationals, including many stateless ones. Many tried to flee the country; some returned and others fled to the US, Latin America, Portugal, Britain, etc. Today, Belgium has the fourth largest Jewish community in Europe - a country that is the size of Maryland.
Books
"Belgium Jewish Heritage" - available from the Belgian Tourist Office, 780 Third Avenue, Suite 1501, New York, NY 10017. This booklet has information about Jewish museums, kosher restaurants and Jewish organizations. "Index of Jewish Family Names and Family Search Indicators to Provide Quicker and Easier Searches in Brussels' Archives" - authored by Claude Geudevertt, this index is a genealogical tool which provides useful information for those interested in finding their Jewish roots and their possible connections with Belgium. An alphabetical list of family names, based on available archival sources in
Brussels, along with the first location where an individual or family is known or proved to have lived prior to coming to
Brussels. This index is one of a series of helpful publications available from GenAmi at a nominal charge. "Memorial to the Jews Deported from Belgium 1942-44" (Memorial de la Deportation des Juifs de Belgique") authored by Beate Klarsfeld, was published after 1978 in English and should be available from F.F.D.J.F 32, rue la Boetie, 75008 Paris, France or from The Beate Klarsfeld Foundation 515 Madison Avenue New York, NY 10022 General Belgium
Synagoog van de Portugese ritus Hoveniersstraat 3
Antwerp
Antwerp was one of the main transit ports in Europe. The Flemish port city encompasses one of the last remaining shtetls in the world. Diamonds and Orthodoxy are the two forces of this community. There are six large Ashkenazi Shuls and one small Sephardi one located across from the diamond exchange. On the front of the synagogue is a memorial plaque to the victims of a Palestinian terrorist bomb placed there in 1981. The primary language is
Yiddish, French or Hebrew. Useful addresses in Antwerp can be found listed Antwerp Census of 1913 - Names and addresses may be obtained by writing to Micheline Guttmann, GenAmi, Paris, France michelinegutmann@free.fr http://wikitravel.org/en/Antwerp
In French Antwerp Passenger Lists Available via the internet. Make your request by posting a message in the soc.genealogy.benelux newsgroup who are very helpful. Emigrants leaving from Antwerp to the US and Canada, in the period from 1872 until 1935, were in general, transported by the Red Star Line. Unfortunately, it is said that nothing has survived of the Red Star Line archives. The only source of information for emigrants who were not residents of Belgium are the registers of hotels and boarding houses. Emigrants did not usually stay in hotels, but in boarding houses. Some, but not all, registers of boarding houses are kept at the Stadsarchief in Antwerp and can be viewed there. The periods available are: 1811-1821 Jan Bousse of Oostende, Belgium boussejan@pandora.be may be contacted for additional information according to a posting to JewishGen on March 27, 2000. Archives - General State Archives - in Brussels Lewis Baratz, in a posting to JewishGen of Feb 10, 1999, stated that "as a Fulbright Scholar, Belgium has remarkable archives, probably second only to the UK, and the documents are highly accessible." Liege
Archive is in the Francophone community which is a bit less likely to prioritize a foreign request - language reasons, primarily. Stadsarchief Antwerpen (City Archive of Antwerp, Belgium) http://vlib.iue.it/hist-eur-integration/Archives.html http://users.skynet.be/pjansse1/genealogy/BEL-archives/arch.html http://www.oesta.gv.at/site/6408/default.aspx Arlon A monument has been placed in the new Jewish cemetery to the memory of the
Jews of Arlon who were deported and massacred by the Nazis. There is a synagogue at
Rue St. Jean. Contact: Sec: J. C. Jacob rue des Martyrs 11 Phone: 063 21 79 85 http://www.alljewishlinks.com/arlon-synagogue-in-arlon-belgium/ http://www.edwardvictor.com/BelgiumFrame2Main.htm http://www.iajgsjewishcemeteryproject.org/belgium/arlon.html http://www.culture-routes.lu/php/fo_index.php?lng=en&view=full&dest=bd_ev_det&id=00001594 http://www.jewisheritage.org/jh/agenda_detail.php?lang=1&e=2009&id=2 Belgium Jewish History http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Belgium.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Belgium http://www.visitbelgium.com/index.php/jewish-heritage http://www.rootsweb.com/~jfuller/gen_mail_country-blg.html Belgium and Dutch Jews
They were sometimes called Black Dutch in America because they spoke
Dutch or Flemish and were darker than the other Dutch and
Flemish. They had only recently moved to the Netherlands and
Belgium (then Spanish Netherlands) from Iberia (Portugal and Spain). When
Spain annexed Portugal for a while, many Portuguese Jews fled to Spanish Flanders to escape the Inquisition or
Flanders as part of
Spanish Netherlands). http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/118746675/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0 http://fcit.usf.edu/holocaust/people/rescuer.htm http://www.geschichteinchronologie.ch/eu/belgien/EncJud_juden-in-Belgien01-MA-ENGL.html http://www.tngenweb.org/campbell/hist-bogan/BlackDutch.html http://www.comanchelodge.com/black-dutch.html
http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~hornbeck/blkdutch.htm Belgium and its Jews During the War http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v18/v18n2p-2_Weber.html http://www.southerninstitute.info/holocaust_education/study_guide_jeannine_burk.pdf Belgium-Roots Project Created for the purpose of assisting the descendants of
Belgian emigrants/immigrants living abroad in tracing their
Belgian roots and exploring their Belgian heritage http://www.immigrantships.net/newcompass/pass_lists/listbelgium.html http://www3.telus.net/public/mtoll/belgium.htm Belgian Society for Jewish Genealogy
Genealogy and Family History in the
Benelux Jewish - Museum of Belgium - On-line Archives in Flanders, Belgium - City Archives of Antwerp in Belgium - City Records of Mechelen in Belgium - Shoah Museum in Belgium - GeneaNet
http://www.pitt.edu/~meisel/jewish/jgs.htm http://www.jgsws.org/jewresearch.htm#begin Daniel Dratwa is the President and is also the Conservator of the Jewish Museum of Belgium. Belgian Tourist Office
Jewish cultural organizations, synagogues, Shoah memorials,
24-hour radio station information
Bruge
(Brocha)
Should you ever plan on visiting
Belgium, may I suggest you consider this wonderful and delightful town. In all of our travels, Shirley and I have never found a more tranquil setting as this town displays. You will be able to see how people lived from the 14th
and 15th centuries on as this town has preserved this delightful atmosphere very carefully. Bruge
is a canal-filled former capital of West Flanders. http://www.brugge.be/internet/en/index.htm
http://www.frommers.com/destinations/bruges/ http://www.sacred-destinations.com/belgium/brussels-jewish-museum-of-belgium.htm Brussels Once a sleepy village that grew up around a chapel on an island in the Senne River, Brussels is now a thriving small capital city. The name
Brussels originates from the Old Dutch "bruocsella", which means
"home in the marsh".
There is a substantial and diverse Jewish community and the city is also the seat of the
Consistoire Central Israelite de Belgique, the official representative body of
Belgian Jewry that is composed of representatives of both Orthodoxy and the secular Jewish organizations. Beth Hillel, the synagogue of the
Communaute Israelite Liberale de Belgique rue Josepah Dupont. It is the largest synagogues in
Belgium and is traditional Ashkenazim. Rabbi is Albert Guigui. E-Mail 512 43.34 & 512 92 37 has about 400 families as members. http://www.kosherdelight.com/BelgiumSynagogues.shtml
The Central Synagogue was established in 1878 and is next door to the Royal Conservatory and near the Palais de Justice. Behind its nondescript front, is a stunningly beautiful interior. The congregation is 'traditional' and shares the synagogue with Orthodox members who hold their own parallel services in a shtibl on the second floor. There is about 1,300 families who attend the High Holiday services.
Jewish Museum (site is
in French and Dutch only)
List of 100,000 names from Brussels - containing all the names of Jews and others, deported from
Belgium, including some with their families. Many families lived in
Brussels since the 18th century. Names from Eastern Europe, as well as from
France, Germany and the Netherlands are also available at http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/lodz/trace.htm Also there is a database containing documents, names and pictures from Jews deported from Belgium on the site: Machsike Hadass (Communaute Israelite Orthodoxe de Bruxelles) is located at 67a rue de la Clinique. Rabbi Chaikin. There is the synagogue, Beth Ha'Midrash, a mikva'ot'oth and the Beth Din on the premises. http://www.ikg-wien.at/static/etis/unter/html/re/synas/machsike.htm Much more general information about the Jewish community, including the addresses and phone numbers of the many synagogues and Jewish organizations in Brussels can be found at Central Jewish Welfare Organization B-Antwerp 2018, Belgium - No web site available Charleoi
There is a synagogue and a Kehila at 56 rue Pige au Croly. Contact: Sec: M. Weinberg 65 rue van der Velde, 6300 Marchiennes http://www.cicb.be/en/help.htm http://www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/righteous/pdf/resources/lucien_steinberg.pdf Digital Resources for Belgium
Contains a huge amount of resources including passenger lists http://genealogy.about.com/od/belgium/Belgium_Genealogy_Family_History.htm http://www.genealogylinks.net/europe/belgium/ The Emigrants from Belgium to the United States and Canadawww.ping.be/picavet/http://www.theshipslist.com/Forms/Canreport1901.htm http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~gsfa/links.html European Council of Jewish Communities http://www.ecjc.org/modules/home/index.php European Visual Archive (EVA) The European Visual Archive is a searchable image resource containing historical photographs dating from 1840 up to today. The photographs originate from the collections of the
London Metropolitan Archives and the Stadsarchief Antwerpen. Currently EVA contains 18.028 descriptions of digitized photographs. The site is available in
English, French, Dutch, German, Italian, and Spanish. Fort Breedonk This is an abandoned army fortress that was used as a concentration camp by the Nazis during the war. It primarily housed political prisoners, including Jews who were active in the resistance and was a notorious torture chamber site. The site has been preserved intact and is today a national memorial. It is one of the 22 camps that won the morbid honor of having its name engraved on the floor of the memorial crypt at
Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. http://www.breendonk.be/EN/index.html FrenchSIG
This is a discussion group and there is a lot of information about Jewish genealogical research in
France, French Colonies and French-speaking areas including Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland. http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~jfuller/gen_mail_jewish.html http://www.jewishgen.org/rabbinic/infofiles/genami.htm http://tracingthetribe.blogspot.com/2010/06/france-genami-issue-52-now-available.html GenAmi
Has a list of names from the Brussels Archives. These lists are indexes for the dictionary of genealogy and biography and are important because immigrants to
Brussels came from all over Europe including: France (Paris, Alsace, Lorraine), Netherlands, England, Germany, Eastern Europe, Turkey, North Africa and even America. http://www.genami.org/Personnages-celebres/en_membres-gd-sanhedrin.php Ghent The synagogue is located at St. Elizabethplein 11. Contact is J. Bloch, Veldstraat 60 Telephone: 09 225 70 85 http://www.mavensearch.com/synagogues/C3359Y41461RX http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=209&letter=G
http://books.google.com/books?id=5azmtjTEQW4C&pg=PA307&lpg=PA307&dq=Ghent+Jew&source=bl&ots=WyoWqgQnht&sig= Index of Jewish Family Names and Family Search Indicators
Compiled by Claude C. Geudevert, is partially available at the
GenAmi website http://www.familytreemagazine.com/article/Ties-That-Bind Jewish Cemeteries Based on various sources, there are no
Jewish cemeteries in Belgium. This information was also based on a
Belgian Law that requires a cemetery to be dug up, or destroyed, after a period of 49 years. Most
Belgian Jews were buried in Holland. http://www.iajgsjewishcemeteryproject.org/belgium/index.html http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Jewish_cemeteries_in_Belgium US Military Cemetery - Henri La Chapelle US Military Cemetery http://www.peachmountain.com/5star/American_Cemetery_Henri_Chapelle_Belgium.asp http://www.awon.org/memorials/henrichapelle/ Jewish Genealogical Society of Belgium
Daniel Dratwa, President 74 Avenue Stalingrad, B-1000 Bruxelles, Belgique Phone: 32 2 512 19 63 Fax: 32 2 513 48 59 E-mail d.dratwa@mjb-jmb.org http://www.jgsny.org/dorot.htm http://www.jewishgen.org/infofiles/ http://www.genealogylinks.net/country/jewish-genealogy/europe/index.html Jewish Museum of Belgium (Joods Museum van Belgie)
Genealogy and exhibition links and choose language of choice. The
JMB has a card-index system of 65,000 Jews who lived in Belgium in November, 1940. The Museum has many other lists according to the web site.
Daniel Dratwa e-mail: d.dratwa@mjb-jmb.org http://www.cicb.be/en/home_en.htm
http://www.opt.be/informations/tourist_attractions_bruxelles__jewish_museum_of_belgium/
http://www.travelchannel.com/Places_Trips/Destinations/Europe/Belgium/Brussels/Attractions/ Jewish Secular Community Center B-1060 Brussels, Belgium http://www.holocausttaskforce.org/memberstates/member-belgium.html Jewish Social Services B-1060 Brussels, Belgium http://forms.claimscon.org/allocations_lists/all_allocations.php?order=city&type=asc http://www.ijc.be/newcomers.html Keerbergen
I received the following e-mail - perhaps someone will be able to help Frans. "I am writing a book about Keerbergen airfield. In 1943, Berthold Linz and Fréderic Steiner, Jewish people who lived in Keerbergen, were arrested by the Germans. I suppose that both men died in concentration camps. Is there any website or database where I can find the names of the Belgian-Jewish people who died in these German camps ? Where can I find confirmation about the fate of these people from Keerbergen? Nothing was found in the local archives of Keerbergen. Many thanks for your help, Frans Van Humbeek http://www.glasglow.com/e2/ke/Keerbergen.html http://www.novelguide.com/a/discover/ciow_03/ciow_03_00117.html Knokke
There is a kosher restaurant Steinmetz, Piers de Raveschootlaan 129 and the Synagogue and mikva'ot'oth is located at Van Bunnenlaan 30 http://www.mavensearch.com/synagogues/C3359Y41462RX http://www.alljewishlinks.com/synagogues/europe/belgium/knokke/ Koksijde aan zee This is a kosher vacation camp for children, Damesweg 10 and is run by the 'Centrale' Liege The synagogue and Kehila is located at rue Leon Fredericq 19. The Community Centre and Entraide Juive (Jewish mutual help) is located at 12 Quai Marcellis (also a shelter) Musee Serge Kruglanski 19 rue Leon Fredericq http://www.alljewishlinks.com/liege-synagogue-in-liege-belgium/ List of family names up to 1900 http://www.nljewgen.org/international.html http://www.cyndislist.com/jewish.htm
http://www.wordtravels.com/Travelguide/Countries/Belgium/Map http://www.europeetravel.com/maps/ http://www.trabel.com/belgie-imap.htm http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/europe/be.htm Mechelen The
Dossinkazerne is an army garrison that was used by the Nazis as a transit camp for Jews to be sent to one of the death camps and is currently being converted into a Deportation Museum. http://www.massviolence.org/The-Transit-Camp-for-Jews-in-Mechelen-The-Antechamber-of Jewish Museum of Deportation and Resistance in Belgium Located in Mechelen, Daniel Dratwa, Director d.dratwa@mjb-jmb.org or Bob Drilsma b.drilsma@innet.be or Marcel Apsel marap@innet.be Ms. Laurence Schram is the archivist and historian. The museum has available many files including various Registers of Jews, a Library of various genealogical periodicals, many records and a photo archive of about 12,000 photos. "Joods Museum van Deportatie en Verzet" is located in
Mechelen and holds list of deported Jews. They are very helpful with providing information.. E-mail infos@cicb.be Joods Museum Van Deportatie en Verzet
Mons
There is a small Jewish Community that hold regular services. It is near to the
Casteau the International Chapel of NATO AEs Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe. Information: Shape, 7010, Belgium. http://data.jewishgen.org/wconnect/wc.dll?jg~jgsys~shtetm~-1965562 http://www.jewishtravelagency.com/JewishTravel/BelgiumJewishHeritage.htm Ostend Services are held in July and August at the synagogue located at Maastrichtplein 3. Contact: Secretary Liliane Wulfowicz Parklaan 21, B-8400 http://www.visitbelgium.com/index.php/jewish-heritage http://www.alljewishlinks.com/synagogues/europe/belgium/ Roubaix Roubaix is known as “l’Enfer du Nord” which translates to “The Hell of the North.” That expression came from the soldiers who were posted there during WW I. The rough farm tracks and cobbled lanes that are used are what was left after the bombing in World War 1. http://www.thejc.com/travel/holidays/28996/curtain-a-lille-what-you-fancy
http://books.google.com/books?id=OS2iGsTaeO0C&pg=PA94&lpg=PA94&dq=Roubaix++Belgium+jew&source= http://www.genami.org/en/belgian-file/belgian-file-h.php Search Sites www.teldir.com Society for Jewish Genealogy in Belgium http://www.nljewgen.org/belg_gen.html http://www.cyndislist.com/jewish.htm http://www.jewishgen.org/french/links.htm Spa The English word
"spa" comes from the Belgian town of the same name. Spa is renowned
for its healing hot springs. http://www.historyorb.com/countries/belgium http://www.rijo.homepage.t-online.de/pdf/EN_NU_JU_lorch.pdf Yiddish Newspaper Yiddishe Tseitoung was published in
Antwerp and Brussels. Copies of the paper may be found at the Hebrew University in Cincinnati.
http://www.world-newspapers.com/jewish-magazines.html Zaventem (Brussels National Airport) There is a synagogue in the transit hall. http://www.etriptips.com/wiki/Antwerp
Please let me know if there is a favorite link of yours that is not included in my site and I will be happy to add it to Jewish Web Index more to come ... | |||
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order. A mix of these languages is spoken in the Capital Region of
Brussels.
Belgium Map
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