Papierbuch-Oppenheimer family. Collection

This collection contains photocopies of the following documents : marriage certificate of Nachman Papierbuch and Ruth Oppenheimer ; membership forms of the Jewish Association of Belgium (Association des Juifs en Belgique, AJB) ; receipts of financial donations to charity ; letter confirming Nachman Papierbuch’s membership of the Free Diamond trade ; postwar certificate confirming the hiding of Ruth Oppenheimer, her son José and other family members including Félicie Gruszow at Petit-Han ; certificate signed by moving company Arthur Pierre confirming the clearing out of the Papierbuch-Oppenheimer family home in 1943. Contact Kazerne Dossin Documentation Centre: archives@kazernedossin.eu Nachman Papierbuch was born in 1903 in Warsaw, Poland. He migrated to Belgium in 1923 and became a leather worker, later on a diamond merchant. In 1938 Nachman married Ruth Oppenheimer, born in 1907 in Freistett, Germany. In 1939, their son José Papierbuch was born. In July 1942, Nachman was claimed by the Nazis as a forced labourer. He was taken to the North of France where he was housed in the Les Mazures camp. He worked for the companies Vaisset and Scholzen, subcontractors of Organisation Todt, the German enterprise responsible for the built of the Atlantic Wall. On 21 October 1942, Nachman was sent to the Dossin barracks from where, three days later, he was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau via transport XV. Although Nachman Papierbuch did not survive, his wife Ruth and son José, together with Félicie Gruszow, the daughter of Ruth's sister, survived the war in hiding in Petit-Han. José Papierbuch later migrated to Israel, Félicie Gruszow still lives in Belgium.