Some error occured while loading the Quick View. Please close the Quick View and try reloading the page.
As an infant in Antwerp, Jacques Weisser entered the world at a moment of acute danger for Belgian Jews. When his mother was arrested and deported to Auschwitz in 1942, Jacques was left without a parent to protect him. Classified under a temporary Nazi edict sparing children under five, he was moved between an orphanage, hospital and secret hiding place in the Ardennes, surviving only through the intervention of resistance networks and the extraordinary courage of Catholic caregivers. He spent much of the war malnourished, ill and unaware of his family’s fate.
After liberation, Jacques was eventually located by relatives and raised in Belgium before later living in England, Southern Rhodesia and Israel. As an adult, he devoted himself to Holocaust remembrance and education, rediscovering his early history through archival research and reconnecting with other hidden children.
Jacques’s book is part of the My Voice book collection, a stand-alone project of The Fed, the leading Jewish social care charity in Manchester, dedicated to preserving the life stories of Holocaust survivors and refugees from Nazi persecution who settled in the UK. The oral history, which is recorded and transcribed, captures their entire lives from before, during and after the war years. The books are written in the words of the survivor so that future generations can always hear their voice. The My Voice book collection is a valuable resource for Holocaust awareness and education.
My father’s family tree
My mother’s family tree
1 Born during the war and hidden
2 My father’s horrific war story
3 Hidden in Belgium
4 Found by my aunt and uncle
5 Getting ill with polio
6 A different life in England
7 Moving to Southern Rhodesia
8 The wandering Jew
9 Learning the hotel trade
10 Back to my Belgian roots
11 Clearing up dead chickens
12 Meeting the love of my life
13 The proposal that never was
14 Bringing Judy into the family
15 Settling down into married life
16 A Jewish way of life in London
17 Finding the photo of my mother
18 The beginning of my family legacy
19 Hearing my mother’s name at Auschwitz
20 My father’s testimony
21 Meeting Bill and the other hidden children
22 Why I work in Holocaust education
23 A pilgrimage to Auschwitz
24 My message as a Jew and a survivor
Glossary
My Voice volunteers
About The Fed