Wajnacht-Jamajka family. Collection

Lejbus Wajnacht was born in Warsaw, Poland, on 25 October 1890. He became a leather worker and, on 20 March 1921, he married Sura Dwora Jamajka, who was born in Warsaw on 20 September 1891. The couple had two children. The eldest, a son named Israel (also Izrael or Izraël) alias Jean, was born in Warsaw on 21 November 1922. The family emigrated from Poland to Belgium in 1925 and settled in the Brussels area, where Sura Dwora’s brother-in-law and sister, Joseph and Pauline Gabinet-Jamajka, lived since 1920. Lejbus and Sura Dwora’s youngest child Rachel was born in Etterbeek on 21 July 1928. They still resided in the Belgian capital when Nazi-Germany invaded Belgium on 10 May 1940. It is likely that Lejbus Wajnacht passed away or fled the country around that time. Upon the invasion, Sura Dwora Jamajka and her children Israel and Rachel were forced to obey the anti-Jewish decrees. At the end of 1940, Sura Dwora and Israel were registered in the municipal Jewish register of Anderlecht, where they resided at Rue de Fiennes 81. In Spring 1942, Sura Dwora and her children became members of the Brussels branch of the Association of Jews in Belgium. In Summer 1942, Israel Wajnacht took on a job as a teacher at the Wezembeek-Oppem orphanage run by the Association of Jews in Belgium. On 30 October 1942 the Nazis raided the orphanage and arrested all the children and most of the staff members present, including Israel Wajnacht. All were taken to the SS-Sammellager Mecheln (Dossin barracks). Although the female staff members and the children were released that night, Israel and a second male teacher were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau via transport XVII on 31 October 1942. According to the Auschwitz Sterbebücher, Israel Wajnacht perished on 2 December 1942. Sura Dwora Jamajka and her daughter Rachel Wajnacht were arrested in early 1944 and were registered at the Dossin barracks on 26 January 1944. Both were deported from Mechelen to Auschwitz-Birkenau on 4 April 1944 via transport XXIV and were murdered. No further information on their husband and father Lejbus Wajnacht is available. Contact Kazerne Dossin Research Centre: archives@kazernedossin.eu This collection contains: two studio portraits of Rachel Wajnacht, 1940 and 1943 ; a studio portrait of Sura Dwora Jamajka and her son Israel (also Izrael or Izraël) Wajnacht, ca. 1928.