Bernard Leibman (M / Belgium, 1938-2019), Holocaust survivor

Bernard Leibman (M / Belgium, 1938-2019), Holocaust survivor

Jacques Leibman / Isaac Lajbman (M / Belgium, 1931-2011), Holocaust survivor

• KEYWORDS : <Belgium> <Hidden Children> -- <United States>

Biography

Bernard Leibman was born in 1938 in Brussels, Belgium. Jacques and Bernard were the children of Abram Lajbman and Chaja Sura Radziejewski. In 1942, when Jacques was 11 and his brother was 4, their mother placed them in Antwerp, far from their home, in the care of a widow with five children. Because his mother "didn't look Jewish," she could visit them every month. Finding them poorly cared for, she found another family in the coal-mining region, where the young boys had to learn a new dialect. Another move to a farm found them churning butter, learning catechism and "always afraid that my mother wouldn't show up." Jacques Leibman did not attend school for three years. They were reunited to their parent after the war. Their brother Raymond was born in 1946. Eventually the family moved to the United States.

USHMM

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.