Hélène de Bie

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Hélène de Bie , née Vandenbril (born December 11, 1896 - October 19, 1983 ) was a Belgian scout and savior . She and her husband Benoît de Bie († 1972) were honored as Righteous Among the Nations in 2002.

Life

Hélène Vandenbril volunteered in the Catholic scout organization run by sisters Marcelle and Madeleine De Meulemeester . After Belgium was occupied by the Wehrmacht in 1940 and the deportation of Jewish Belgians began, they decided to help save them.

In October 1942 Abbot Buisseret of the monastery in Saint-Gilles turned to the De Meulemeester sisters and asked for help for Henri Szlamovicz (born June 21, 1942), a five-month-old Jewish boy at the time. Hélène Vandenbril met her mother and her then nine-year-old daughter Rachel in Brussels. The mother gave this to her five-month-old son. The older daughter, Rachel Szlamovicz, was hidden in a monastery. She continued to visit her little brother for a while. The children's parents went into hiding but were arrested in October 1943. Henri Szlamovicz's mother was murdered in Auschwitz concentration camp in 1944 . The father Abraham Szlamovicz was initially imprisoned in the Fort Breendonk camp . Later he came to the SS assembly camp in Mechelen .

Hélène Vandenbril married Benoît de Bie, a Belgian officer, and moved with him to Antwerp . The childless couple raised Henri Szlamovicz like their own son. He called them "Auntie" and "Uncle Ben". They always reminded him that they were not his birth parents and that they would bring him home.

Abraham Szlamovicz brought his daughter Rachel to live with him after his liberation in September 1944. The trace to his son had been lost because Abbot Buisseret had since died. Rachel Szlamovicz remembered the De Meulemeester sisters who gave the father the Antwerp address of the de Bie couple. They now lived with Hélène de Bie's family in the country. Years later, the father met his son again there. Abraham Szlamovicz initially left him with the de Bies to build a new life for himself. In 1948 he picked up his son from them and lived with his daughter and son in Bolivia until 1950 . Benoît de Bie died in 1972, his wife in 1983. Henri Szlamovicz, later Zvi Slmovic, stayed in touch with Hélène de Bie through letters and visits until her death.

On April 22nd, 2002, Hélène and Benoît de Bie were named Righteous Among the Nations ”by Yad Vashem .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c צבי שלמוביץ on the side of the house of the ghetto fighters (Hebrew)
  2. ↑ Yad Vashem yadvashem.org
personal data
SURNAME Bie, Hélène de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Vandenbril, Hélène (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Belgian rescuer of the Jews and Righteous Among the Nations
DATE OF BIRTH December 11, 1896
DATE OF DEATH October 19, 1983