Boris Averbruch

Salomon Averbruch and his wife Luba Lasowski migrated from Russia to Belgium in 1911. Their eldest son was born in Antwerp in 1913. They call him Simon. During the First World War father Salomon fought voluntarily in the Belgian army. He was part of the 6th line regiment commanded by Baron Emile Dossin de Saint-Georges. Just before the Second World War, a barracks in Mechelen will be named after this general. Salomon Averbruch received eight medals for his courage, but was wounded and mutilated for life. England allowed him to settle with his wife and child in London, where Boris was born on August 14, 1917.

In 1919, the family returned to Belgium. They first settled in Brussels, but often moved: to Ostend, where daughter Lea was born in 1924, to Jemelle and Rochfort, and then to Borgerhout at the end of 1932. Salomon earned his living as a market vendor. Because of his injuries he is disabled. The family had a hard time keeping their heads above water. Simon becomes a hotel clerk, Boris a teacher, Lea studies. Despite repeated attempts to obtain Belgian nationality on the basis of Salomon’s past as a soldier, the Averbruchs remain Russian refugees for the Belgian state.

In May 1940 Nazi Germany invades Belgium. From the end of 1941, when Jewish children were sent away from non-Jewish schools, Boris accepted a job as a teacher at a Jewish school in Antwerp run by the Jewish Association in Belgium. Around Passover 1942 Boris, together with several other teachers, writes a letter of protest to the Jewish Association. The quality of the education was too poor. Action must be taken. Unfortunately, the protest does not get much out of it.

At the end of August 1942 the five family members Averbruch received an Arbeitseinsatzbefehl, a call for forced labour. Those of Boris and his mother were withdrawn because of Boris’ job. However, on 25 August 1942 father Salomon and his eldest son Simon and his daughter Lea report to the Dossin Barracks. They are registered on the deportation list of Transport VI. On 26 August 1942 Boris writes to his good friend Odette Damoiseau in Brussels:

“Mon père, mon frère, ma sœur sont partis hier à Malines. I can’t go back to the house because I remember their presence. Nous étions si unis. C’est inhumain, cruel, bestiale. Qui sait si ik les renverrai encore?”

Boris tried to get his employer, the Jewish Association, to postpone their deportation, but chairman Nico Workum refused. In his letters to Odette, Boris expressed himself bitterly about his colleagues from the Jewish Association. He contacted lawyers, high-ranking railway workers, ex-combatants, members of the nobility… In vain. On 29 August 1942, ex-combatant Salomon and his Belgian-born children Simon and Lea were taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau. None of them survived.

Boris and his mother were spared for only a few days. On the night of 28 to 29 August 1942, the Nazis organized a second major raid in Antwerp. Boris and Luba Lasowski are arrested in their home at Montensstraat 64. His ties with the Jewish Association could no longer save Boris. He quickly scribbles on a postcard to Odette:

Il est 5 heures du matin.
On est venu nous chercher hors des lits.
Je ne sais pour où ni quoi.
Adieu

Boris

Somebody post the card. Maybe one of the Antwerp cops who took Boris off his bed and took him to the police station? From there he and Luba go to a community school, where more than 200 Jews have been brought together. Trucks take them to the Dossin Barracks. Boris and Luba are registered at the barracks on the deportation list of transport VII. On 1 September 1942 they were taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Boris throws a letter for Odette from the train. He writes that they are on their way to the east, probably to Silesia, via Germany:

“Chère Odette, I am very triste de ce qui est arrivé. I was able to manage several times, but I did not want to find out what measures were taken against him. »

It is likely that Boris in Kosel will be taken off the train and sent to a labour camp near Auschwitz-Birkenau. Neither he nor his mother survived the deportation.

In 1995 Kazerne Dossin does not yet exist. The project Give them a Face has not yet started either. On 15 February 1995, a package arrived at the team working on the design for the Jewish Museum of Deportation and Resistance. The package contains five letters from Boris Averbruch to Odette Damoiseau. Until today the exact nature of their relationship is unknown to us. And yet…

The postcard that Boris wrote on 28 August 1942 a few minutes after the police invaded his house will be part of the permanent exhibition of the Jewish Museum of Deportation and Resistance for 16 years. However, we did not find a photograph of Boris. Until 2018. Until then, by pure coincidence, at the FelixArchief in Antwerp, we stumbled upon the identity papers of Boris’ mother, Luba. As if by a thousandth miracle the file also contained the photographs of his father Salomon, his brother Simon and … Boris himself. Thanks to the dedication of many people we were able to give Boris a face. His entire family died, but his story will never be forgotten.