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The Wolff-Halpert family hoped for a new life on the other side of the ocean, but arrived.
Hans Paul Wolff (b. 10/03/1897 in Schroda, Poland), together with his wife Else Halpert (b. 1/12/1897 in Bomst, Poland) and daughter Henny Erika Wolff (b. 6/01/1926 in Schwiebus, Poland), applied to migrate to Belgium in July 1939. He was a farmer and indicated that his family did not intend to settle permanently in Belgium, as they wanted to travel on to Montevideo. Montevideo gave Wolff’s family permission in June 1939 to cultivate the land purchased in Rivera with agriculture and fruit growing. Wolff and his family would also eventually get permission to stay there permanently.
On 8 May 1940 the family arrived in Belgium where they went to live at 63 rue Royale Sainte-Marie in Schaerbeek. During the German invasion they tried to flee to France, but Hans was arrested by the Belgian police on 10 May and handed over to the French authorities. They send him to the internment camp Gurs in the French Pyrenees. After the Belgian capitulation the occupation authorities installed a regime characterised by anti-Jewish laws. Else and Henny had to register in the Register of Jews, indicating two places of residence: Rogierstraat in Schaarbeek and Doornikstraat in Vorst. In March 1942, Hans returned to Belgium and registered in the Register of Jews.
Hans could only stay out of the hands of the Germans for a few months before he was arrested again in August 1942 and sent to the Dossin Barracks in Mechelen. Here, thanks to his German nationality, he is able to work as a nurse. Although as a farmer he has no medical knowledge, his German nationality turns out to be more important than a medical education. As a nurse, Hans was the right-hand man of the Jewish camp doctor Fritz Basch and was very dedicated, which also earned him a lot of sympathy from the internees. When camp commander Frank discovers that Basch is embezzling money, Basch, Wolff and everyone else suspected of collaboration are locked up in the Sint-Gillis prison. After this the suspects were sent back to Mechelen, where they were put on the list of transport XXIIA. Not only the suspects are deported, but also their families. Hans, Else and Henny Erika did not survive the war.
Source: Laurence Schram, Dossin: wachtkamer van Auschwitz, Lannoo, 2018, 175.