The Sint-Erasmus hospital is a former hospital that was located at 33 Fonteinstraat in

Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

. In Dutch, it was known as Sint-Erasmusgasthuis.

Second World War

In August 1942, Antwerp Governor Jan Grauls declared, by order of the occupying authorities, that the Sint-Erasmus hospital was the only hospital in Antwerp in which it was still allowed to treat Jewish patients. In addition to this, Jewish doctors were the only doctors who were allowed to treat Jewish patients, with the exception of life-threatening cases. The hospital had a closed ward, reserved for the care of Jews. In all other municipal and private hospitals and sanatoriums, it became forbidden to treat Jews.

Hidden Jewish children

On September 21, 1942, the German

Sicherheitspolizei The often abbreviated as SiPo, is a German term meaning "security police". In the Nazi Germany, Nazi era, it referred to the state political and criminal investigation security agency, security agencies. It was made up by the combined forces of ...

und

Sicherheitsdienst ' (, "Security Service"), full title ' ("Security Service of the ''Reichsführer-SS''"), or SD, was the intelligence agency of the Schutzstaffel, SS and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany. Established in 1931, the SD was the first Nazi intelligence ...

(Sipo-SD) raided three Antwerp orphanages: Meisjeshuis (Antwerp), Pennsylvania Foundation and Jongenshuis. In Meisjeshuis, all 25 Jewish orphans who had already reached the age of five were arrested and taken to the Dossin barracks, the former transit camp in

Mechelen Mechelen (; ; historically known as ''Mechlin'' in EnglishMechelen has been known in English as ''Mechlin'', from where the adjective ''Mechlinian'' is derived. This name may still be used, especially in a traditional or historical context. T ...

. The entire group was deported and gassed upon arrival in

Auschwitz-Birkenau Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration camps, concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) d ...

. The youngest of 14 Jewish children of Meisjeshuis had not been arrested during a raid on September 21, 1942. They were still staying at the department of Kinderkribbe Good Engels. In a series of rescue actions, a total of 10 Jewish children were taken from there to the Sint-Erasmus hospital, where they all went into hiding. Among these children were

Risa Schwartz Risa Schwartz Whiting, born Fanny Englander (November 25, 1939 – June 20, 2017) was an actress active in the United States, most commonly known for her role in The Tenth Man (Chayefsky play) as Evelyn Foreman. Her adoptive father was Maurice S ...

and Jacques Weisser. Eventually, most of the Jewish children were found by the Germans and arrested in the hospital, but 9 out of the 10 rescued children survived the war. Bill Frankenstein (born as Bernard Baron) and Werner Szydlow, two of the rescued children, described their stay in the hospital as follows: Hiddenchildreninsinterasmushospital02

In October 1944, the hospital was damaged by V-bombs, and later, the building was demolished.

References

External links

Van het kindertehuis naar de gaskamer: 40 Antwerpse kinderen bleken niet veilig

Brownstein: Holocaust child survivors reconnect seven decades after arriving in Montreal

‘Het loont nog altijd om te blijven zoeken’

Orphaned in Holocaust, Belgian survivors reunite over 70 years later

Holocaust Memorial Day: They were rescued from deportation. Now, Jewish orphans reunite.
{{coord missing, Belgium The Holocaust in Belgium Buildings and structures in Antwerp Demolished buildings and structures in Belgium