Jacques Szafman
"Pray and hope for the best that nothing bad should happen to you."
Name at birth
Jacques Szafman
Date of birth
02/18/1932
Where did you grow up?
Brussels, Belgium
Name of father, occupation
Abraham Usher,
Tailor
Maiden name of mother, occupation
Fajga Steinberg,
Homemaker and helped father
Immediate family (names, birth order)
Parents and me
How many in entire extended family?
We had a large family
Who survived the Holocaust?
I did
In 1942, my mother hid me with a gentile family in the province of Antwerp. I was 10 years old. It was a home that had a lot of kids living in it. I was there until the end of the war. The couple that lived there was nice to me. There were about twenty kids living there. I was lucky that the Germans never came to the home looking for Jewish children.
I worried about my parents. I was a boy. I missed my parents a lot. I played with the other kids and that helped me.
I never saw my parents again. They were murdered at Auschwitz.
Where were you in hiding?
In a home in Antwerp, Belgium
Where did you go after being liberated?
Toronto, Ontario, Canada. I had relatives in Toronto who were looking for me and they found me.
When did you come to the United States?
1945 to Toronto
How is it that you came to Michigan?
I met a girl in Toronto who was from Detroit. We got married and I later moved to Detroit.
Occupation after the war
Tailor
When and where were you married?
August, 1954 Canada
Spouse
Minnie Frankel
What do you think helped you to survive?
Luck and the fact that my parents had the foresight to find me a safe place to hide.
What message would you like to leave for future generations?
Pray and hope for the best that nothing bad should happen to you.
Interviewer:
Charles Silow
Interview date:
04/06/2011
Experiences
Survivor's map
