Apsel-Szulchan family. Collection

Moses Pinkas alias Maurice Apsel was born in Dolynyany, Poland (today Ukraine), on 11 November 1909 as the son of Markus and Pesie Apsel. In September 1927 Moses obtained the necessary papers to emigrate to Belgium where he was to be employed as a diamond clover by the diamond trading company ‘Apsel, Dattner & Mire’. Moses arrived in Antwerp on 8 May 1928 and temporarily lived at Justitiestraat 22, before finding a permanent residence at Mercatorstraat 54. Moses still lived in Antwerp when Nazi-Germany invaded Belgium on 10 May 1940. He was forced to obey the anti-Jewish decrees, and therefore registered himself in the municipal Jewish register on 19 December 1940. In the Summer of 1942 Moses received an order to present himself at the Antwerp Work Bureau where it was to be determined if he was fit enough to be sent to France to work as a slave labourer on the construction of the Atlantic Wall supervised by German engineering company Organisation Todt. Moses was approved for labour and was ordered to report himself at the Antwerp central train station on 14 July 1942, but instead he went into hiding in Brussels. It is likely that, by Summer 1942, Moses was already acquainted with Fanni Szulchan. Fanni was born in Vienna, Austria, on 30 October 1910 as the daughter of Israel Szulchan and Chaja Richter. She had attended a Handelsschule [trade school] in the Austrian capital before working as an administrative employee for several companies. Shortly after Kristallnacht Fanni fled to Belgium where she hoped to obtain papers to emigrate to the United States where she had relatives. Her widowed mother, Chaja Richter, joined Fanni in Antwerp in January 1939. Fanni and Chaja resided at Isabella Brantstraat 58 in Antwerp, and received financial support from a public welfare organization as they were not allowed to work in Belgium. In December 1940, both women obeyed the first anti-Jewish decree, registering themselves in the municipal Jewish register. On 4 January 1941 Fanni and her Chaja were relocated to Limburg. They lived at Wildekerslaan 49 in Waterschei until 2 April 1941, when they returned to Antwerp. In September 1942 Fanni and her mother Chaja officially moved to Rue Ernest Laude 27 in Schaarbeek, but the women were in fact hidden in the basement of the Tassoul family at Rue du Viaduc 59 in Ixelles. It is likely that Moses Apsel joined them there. On 3 May 1943 Fanny gave birth to a daughter named Paula, and on 6 May 1944 to a second daughter named Renée. On 22 July 1944 the Apsel-Szulchan family received a certificate confirming that they were on the German-Palestinian exchange list and that they were therefore exempted from obeying the anti-Jewish decrees and from deportation. Moses, Fanni, their daughters Paula and Renée, and Fanni’s mother Chaja thus all survived the war. In June 1945 the family returned to Antwerp and settled at Plantin en Moretuslei 132. Moses and Fanni officially married in Antwerp on 25 April 1950. On 22 June 1950 Fanni gave birth to a son named Marcel Jacques Apsel. Moses provided for his family by working as a diamond broker. In 1954 the family obtained Belgian nationality. Moses Apsel passed away in 1995, Fanni Szulchan in 1982. Contact Kazerne Dossin Research Centre: archives@kazernedossin.eu This collection contains the following documents: a Jewish calendar for the year 1942-1943 ; six Polish Zloty bank notes ; a letter regarding the delivery of a uniform to a member of a the Flemish SS ; a photocopy of an Ausweis exempting Moses Pinkas alias Maurice Apsel, his wife Fanni Szulchan, their children Paula and Renée Apsel, and Fanni’s mother Chaja Richter from the anti-Jewish decrees as their names occurred on a list with candidates for the German-Palestinian exchange ; a press clipping regarding the post-war trial of the gang of Lucie Delchambre who had denounced Jews during the war ; documents regarding Samuel Jacob Birnbaum and his wife Jeanne Apsel who were deported from France and who had been murdered ; a letter sent to Moses Pinkas alias Maurice Apsel by Mircha Mann (married Kirsztein) asking for supplies while she was detained at the Dossin barracks ; a postcard sent to Moses Pinkas alias Maurice Apsel by Oscar Kirsztein asking for supplies while he was hospitalized at the Onze-Lieve-Vrouwegasthuis (hospital) in Mechelen during his detainment at the Dossin barracks ; a file on the request for Widergutmachung submitted by Moses Pinkas alias Maurice Apsel, his wife Fanni Szulchan, and Fanni’s mother Chaja Richter. This collection contains 44 brochures, books and magazines: “Joden zijn ook Menschen!” by Jef Van de Wiele (two copies), “De opbouw van een nieuw Europa” by Joseph Winschuh, “De Protocollen van de Wijzen van Sion” by J. Nijsse alias Jan Stoutenburg, “L’Avenir de l’Europe” by Friedrich Stieve, “Van proleet tot heer” by R. Ley, “Een arbeider ziet de Sowjet-Unie” by R.A. Simoens, “De toekomst van België”, “De Mythe van Israël. Een toelichting over oorsprong en wezen van het Jodendom” by H. Van Craayenburg, “Bepalingen en Citaten over Nationalisme” door Diederik, “Tegen Leugen en Laster” door August Borms, “Die Bildings- und Erziehungswerte der Erblehre, Erbpflege und Rassenkunde” by Jakob Graf, “Rassenhygiene – Erblehre Familienkunde” by Arthur Hoffman, “Het Boek in Vlaanderen – 1935”, “Het Boek in Vlaanderen – 1936”, “Le Juif talmudiste” by abbé Auguste Rohling, “Erblehre und Erbpflege unter besonderer Berüchtsichtigung des bäuerlichen Lebens” by H.F. Krallinger, “Martin Luther over de Joden” by Martin Sasse, “Rassenkunde, Rassenpflege und Erblehre” by Albert Höft, “Vorgeschichte von Deutschland” by Carl Schuchhardt, “Nationalsozialistische Rassenpolitik” by dr. Gross, “Statuut der Reserve-Onderofficieren”, “Het Duitsche Witboek - Documenten over de laatste faze van de Duitsch-Poolsche Crisis”, “Galmen uit het Normalistenleven” by Piet Kimzeke, Oscare Lahaye and Edm. Velders, “Die Alliance française - Der Weltbund des französischen Kulturimperialismus” by Edmund Halm, “Die Rassen der Menschheit” by H. Weinert, “Die Kriegerische Revolution“ by Kurt Eggers, “Over de Joden en hun leugens“ by Pieter Emiel Keugenius, “Rassenpolitik im Kriege“, “Bolschewisums-jüdisches Untermenschentum“, “Der Dollar rollt“, “Geburten-schund – die Kulturkrankheid Europas“ by Friedrich Burgdörfer, “Vom Sinn dieses Krieges“ by Rudolf Jordan, “Kinder des Vertrauens“ by Friedrich Burgdörfer, “Jong Europa - Maandblad der universitaire jeugd van Europa“, “La jeune Europe - Revue culturelle européenne“, “De Duitschers stalen voor Milliarden Diamant“ by Sam Emmerik, “Wat is feitelijk demokratie?“ by Fritz Ibrügger, “Stammesgeschichte der Menschheit“ by H. Weinert, “Biuletyn zwiazku patriotow polskisch w Belgii“, “Zóó was het in Breendonk-Buchenwald“ by Marcel Polfliet, “La vérité sur les Juifs“ by H. Singer.