Schickler-Feig family. Collection

David Schickler was born on 16 October 1906 in Grodek Jagiellonski, Poland (today Horodok, Ukraine), as the son of Simon Schickler and Chana Todt. He became a teacher and, in July 1930, he followed his parents to Belgium. David moved in with them at Marinisstraat 3 in Antwerp, but the family changed addresses frequently during the years following their arrival. On 10 September 1935, David married Chana alias Hani Feig, who had been born on 30 January 1911 in Berbesti, Romania, as the daughter of David Feig and Schendel Zicherman. In April 1929, Hani had emigrated to Belgium, where she worked as a seamstress. On 17 August 1936, Hani gave birthn in Antwerpn to a son named Max. When Nazi-Germany invaded Belgium on 10 May 1940, David Schickler, Hani Feig and their son Max were living at Kreeftstraat 8 in Antwerp. Hani was pregnant at the time of the invasion, and a second son named Herman Schickler was born on 29 December 1940 in Antwerp. Around the time of Herman’s birth, as imposed by the first anti-Jewish decree, David was forced to register his family in the municipal Jewish register. In April 1942 the family became members of the Association of Jews in Belgium. On 13 June 1942, David Schickler was claimed as a forced labourer by the German construction company Organisation Todt. He was sent to Northern-France where he worked as a slave labourer on the Atlantic Wall. On 12 September 1942, during the third large anti-Jewish raid in Antwerp, social worker Sophie De Pauw took David and Hani’s children Max and Herman Schickler to an Antwerp orphanage supervised by the Centrum voor Openbare Onderstand (CVOO) [Centre for Public Welfare]. It is unclear why or how the boys were separated from their mother Hani Feig and how the Schickler-Feig family came in contact with Sophie De Pauw in the first place. Upon arrival at the orphanage at Albert Grisarstraat, Max was admitted to the department for older children (Meisjeshuis), while toddler Herman was admitted to the Good Engels nursery. On 21 September 1942 several of the Antwerp orphanages supervised by the CVOO were raided by the Sicherheitspolizei-Sicherheitsdienst. 40 children above the age of five, including Max Schickler, were arrested and were transferred to the SS-Sammellager Mecheln (Dossin barracks). The group was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau via transport XI on 26 September 1942. All of them, including Max Schickler, were sent to the gas chamber upon arrival on 28 September 1942. On 30 October 1942, the Nazis returned to the Good Engels nursery to take the remaining Jewish children between the ages of two and five. Herman Schickler, who was just under the age of two, avoided arrest and remained at the orphanage until he was admitted to the Sint-Erasmus hospital on 16 December 1942. From the hospital, Herman went into in hiding in February 1943. In early September 1942, David Schickler was either released or escaped from the Camiers labour camp run by Organisation Todt in Northern France. He returned to Belgium where he was reunited with his wife Hani Feig. They took on the false identities of Michel Ivens and Henriette Daels, and went into hiding. David was arrested under unknown circumstances in Gent on 20 May 1944 and was registered at the Dossin barracks on 4 June 1944. At the barracks, he received parcels with food and clothing from Achilles De Pauw, father of Sophie De Pauw who brought David’s children to the CVOO orphanage in September 1942. On 30 July 1944, the eve of his deportation from the barracks, David addressed a letter to Hani and their youngest son Herman, in which David assured Hani that he would return soon, and that he would bring their eldest son Max back with him. The letter was sent to Achilles De Pauw at Bischopstraat 1 in Antwerp. David Schickler was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau via transport XXVI on 31 July 1944. He survived forced labour at Auschwitz-Birkenau and Stutthof before he succumbed at the Buchenwald concentration camp on 18 March 1945. Upon Liberation, Hani Feig was reunited with her son Herman Schickler. They lived together in Gent before returning to Antwerp. Together with her second partner, Maurice Diamant, Hani would have three more children: two daughters who were born in 1947 and 1949, and a son named Aaron Diamant born in 1951. Several members of the family later emigrated to Israel. Hani Feig passed away on 20 August 1989. This collection contains : a studio portrait of Max Schickler as a baby, 1936 ; two false identity cards used by Hani Feig (married Schickler) during the war, 1942-1943 ; a letter written by David Schickler while detained at the SS-Sammellager Mecheln (Dossin barracks), 1944. Contact Kazerne Dossin Research Centre: archives@kazernedossin.eu