Joseph and Josie Peretz papers

Joseph Peretz was born to Gittel and Mozes Peretz in Antwerp, Belgium in 1921. He attended public school and completed a three year apprenticeship with a goldsmith. Upon completion of his training, Joseph joined the Belgian military at the age of 19. Within weeks of entering the service, Germany attacked Belgium and France and Joseph was sent to defend Paris. He and 13 other soldiers were briefly taken prisoner by German forces but were ultimately released and sent back to Antwerp, where Joseph resumed a somewhat normal life. As aggression against the Jews increased, Joseph’s family lost their property. In 1942, Joseph was sent to a labor camp in Les Mazures, France where he held various jobs, among them, working as a secretary in a coal production factory, unloading railroad cars, making shoes for German officers, and eventually, working as a butler in an officer’s villa in Fumay, France. During this time, Joseph participated in several sabotage campaigns with French nationals and later, while running errands for the officer, procured all necessary documents to obtain a French identification card after removing the Star of David from his Belgian papers. In 1944, during transfer to a different camp, likely Auschwitz, Joseph escaped with the help of the railroad master in Charleville-Mézières, with whom he had become friendly. Using his French ID cards, Joseph traveled to Tourcoing, where he obtained work with the German Army in an airfield and rented an apartment in Lille, France. While in Tourcoing, Joseph was reunited with his then girlfriend, Josie, who had been in hiding and then working as a nanny. Joseph and Josie were married in October, 1944 and after liberation, both worked for the Allied Army for a brief period. The couple returned to Antwerp and Joseph worked as a traveling salesman in a fur business until 1953 when Russia invaded Hungary. Wanting to avoid the potential for another war, the family immigrated to Canada, where Joseph worked in real estate.

Josie Peretz was born Erna Zweig to Hirsch and Ryfka Zweig in Kraków, Poland in 1924. As a child, Josie immigrated to Belgium, where she met Joseph at school when she was 13 and he was 17. In 1942, while Joseph was interned in a forced labor camp and when the first deportations of Jews to camps in Eastern Europe were ordered, Josie, still a Polish citizen, attempted to get married with an absentee groom in order to obtain Belgian citizenship. During this time, Belgian Jews were exempt from the initial transports. Her request was denied. As a result, she went into hiding in Tourcoing, France with Louis and Suzanne Sailly, where she lived under the name “Josie” as their niece. Josie obtained false papers, attended Catholic school, and wore a cross. She continued to correspond with Joseph while he was in a labor camp, visiting him once. She worked as a nanny for a local butcher, and was reunited with Joseph in Tourcoing after he escaped the labor camp in January 1944. The couple married later that year and moved back to Antwerp, where Josie worked for the Allied Army in an office. In 1946, Josie gave birth to their daughter, Kitty and stayed home as a housewife. The family immigrated to Canada in 1953. Josie passed away in Canada in 2015.