The Weinberger-Frank family

The Weinberger-Franks, a family of Polish Jews, settled in Antwerp.

Little Marc Weinberger and his mother, on holiday at the Belgian coast - Beila Hinda Frank and her husband, Ichel Weinberger, on holiday at the Belgian coast
The Weinberger-Franks, a family of Polish Jews, settled in Antwerp. Beila Hinda Frank arrived from Lithuania before the First World War. The father, Ichel Weinberger, arrived in 1920. He was a shopkeeper in Antwerp, where his son, Marc, was born in 1936. The family lived in the Jewish quarter, in the Provinciestraat, a street that was particularly ravaged by the raids in the summer of 1942 – 165 Jews were arrested there. At the time, Ichel Weinberger was in the Mazures forced labour camp in the French Ardennes. The majority of “Mazurois” were taken to Mechelen and put on Transport 15 on 24 October. They made a brief stop at Mechelen railway station where a number of internees from Mechelen made up the quota. Together with Transport 14, Transport 15 formed a single deportation train. Beila Hinda Frank, who entered the Sammellager on the 20th, was on this transport, but the couple travelled in separate carriages. Upon arrival at Auschwitz-Birkenau on 26 October, the couple disappeared forever.
Marc Weinberger, 9 years old in 1945, ended up as an orphan of the Shoah. His mother had secretly managed to find a home for him with Denis Mertens and his wife, Antonia Claes, in Noorderwijk, near Herentals, 40 kilometres from Antwerp.

 

 

Publication info

ADRIAENS Ward, STEINBERG Maxime (et al.), Mecheln-Auschwitz, 1942-1944. The destruction of Jews and gypsies from Belgium, 4 volumes, Brussels, 2009

Dr. Maxime Steinberg & Dr. Laurence Schram