"Memoirs of my Life"

Louis Suskin was born on 25 August 1909 in Pilzno, Poland. His family had immigrated to the United States, but returned to Poland shortly before his birth. Shortly following his birth, however, the family moved once again, this time to Antwerp, Belgium. Following the outbreak of World War I, and the German invasion of Belgium, his family fled to Holland, where Suskin spent his childhood and youth, in Amsterdam and Haarlem. Following the death of Suskin's mother in 1918, his father sent him to live with the family of Rabbi De Vries, in Haarlem, where he stayed until 1922, when he family returned to Antwerp. It was there that Suskin completed his schooling and apprenticed in the diamond trade. He married Sonia Schwerner in Antwerp in 1934, and they had a son, Sylvan, in 1936. Following the invasion of Belgium in 1940, the Suskin family fled to France, traveling to the southern part of that country, staying in Arcachon and Hendaye, before being able to obtain Cuban visas and immigrate to that country. They spent the remainder of the war years in Havana, before being allowed to immigrate to the United States in 1946, where they settled in New York, adopted as their daughter a niece, Raymonde, and became American citizens in 1951. Copyright Holder: Louis Suskin Consists of a photocopy of one typed memoir, 65 pages, entitled "Memoirs of my Life" by Louis Suskin. In the memoir, Suskin describes his childhood in Belgium and the Netherlands, his apprenticeship in the diamond trade in Antwerp, his marriage to Sonia Schwerner and his family's escape from Belgium to southern France in 1940 and their immigration to Cuba, experiences in Cuba during the war years, their life in New York following the war, Suskin's return to Belgium to adopt his niece, Raymonde, the growth of the Suskins two children, the family's immigration to Israel and return to New York, and Suskins work in the diamond business in the United States, including his work importing diamonds from the Belgian Congo (Democratic Republic of Congo).