At the age of 36, Moses Fischler left Olecyze in Poland to settle in Antwerp. He found a home in Borgerhout, at 9 Spillemansstraat. Later, he moved to 108 Cruyslei in Deurne. His wife, Serka Holländer, and their five children had not yet been able to join him. In October, he submitted an application for family reunification in which he stated: “I can provide for their needs”. Serka Holländer and the children were granted permission to travel to Belgium in 1929. Sonia Laja was born in 1922, Hudes (Lisa) in 1925, Munisz in 1929, Beile Rachel (Bertha) in 1927 and Abraham Aron (Bram), born in 1924. After their reunion, the strictly religious family settled at Lanteernhof 13 in Borgerhout. Moses Fischler was a diamond merchant. In 1933, their youngest child, Jozef, was born in Berchem. In May 1940, the eldest son, Abraham Fischler, aged 16, fled alone to Portugal. Through correspondence, Abraham kept in touch with the family who had remained behind in Antwerp. He received news about daily life, school results (of his brothers at the Jesode Hatora school), football matches, his sister’s new hairstyle, a day out that had to be cancelled due to bad weather, and so on. The correspondence also reveals the anxiety and despair within the family. Whether they had received the photos he had sent, that they were grumbling because Abraham did not send them news about himself very often, that they asked him to send parcels.
The correspondence ceased when Abraham travelled to Cuba. Shortly before the German invasion, the Fischler family settled at 23 Bouwhandelstraat in Borgerhout. Hudes was the first victim. At the age of 17, she received a call-up notice to go to work and reported for duty at the Dossin Barracks. There, she was assigned to Transport III. On arrival at Auschwitz-Birkenau, she was selected for forced labour. She did not survive even a month under the appalling conditions of the labour camp. Her death was recorded on 14 September 1942. On the night of 28–29 August 1942, during Shabbat, the weekly day of rest when families gather together, the Sipo-SD, with the help of more than 100 Antwerp police officers, cordoned off a wide perimeter. The Fischler family were within this perimeter. Only part of the street was searched, but it was the part where they lived. On 29 August, the Fischler family were taken to the Dossin Barracks, where, two days later, they were put on Transport VII bound for Auschwitz-Birkenau. They never returned. On 26 January 1945, Abraham sent a postcard from Cuba because he still had no news of his family. After the liberation, Abraham returned to Antwerp. He never saw his parents, brothers and sisters again. They had ‘left without leaving an address’.
