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Oral history interview with Daniel Goldsmith

Oral History | Digitized | Accession Number: 1997.A.0441.106 | RG Number: RG-50.462.0106

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    Oral history interview with Daniel Goldsmith

    Overview

    Interview Summary
    Daniel Goldsmith, born in Antwerp, Belgium on December 11, 1931 to Polish parents; being raised Orthodox and being educated at a Yeshiva; living in Antwerp under German occupation and suffering under the ever-increasing anti-Jewish measures; his father being transported to a labor camp in France in August 1942 and never hearing from him again; his mother, Ruchel Goldschmidt, who was in contact with the Belgian underground and managed to get some money, safeguard their possessions, and find a hiding place just before and while the Germans raided their neighborhood and ransacked Jewish-owned houses; the Belgians who pointed out Jewish residents; the several instances when Belgians cooperated with the Germans; examples of aid given by non-Jewish Belgians, especially Father André (who was recognized as a “Righteous Gentile”) and other Catholic clergy and nuns; his mother’s work with the underground; being placed with his sister in a convent, then with Christian families after their mother found out the Germans would enter the convent to look for Jewish children; being in a succession of orphanages in Weelde and Mechelen, run by Father Cornelius, from 1943 to 1944, while his sister lived with another Christian family; getting false baptismal papers, changing his name, and living as a Catholic; refusing to convert to Catholicism; how in May 1944 the Germans imprisoned all circumcised boys in the orphanage, then transported them on cattle cars with Jewish children; escaping with several other boys from the moving train and managing to contact a priest who placed each of them in hiding with a different Christian family; how Monsieur and Madame Botier hid Daniel and were kind to him and worked to reunite him with his mother after liberation in September 1944; various placements post liberation, especially in Aische En Refail, Belgium; a French committee that collected hidden Jewish children for Aliyah Bet; his mother receiving an injury during an air raid and not being able to take care of her children at that time; how difficult and painful it was for all parties, especially his sister, when his mother wanted to reclaim her daughter from the Christian family that sheltered her for three years; going to the United States in April 1948 with his mother and his sister; being sponsored by his father’s family; his family’s life shortly after they arrived in the US; and his own life from that time to the present.
    Interviewee
    Daniel Goldsmith
    Date
    interview:  1995 February 06
    Credit Line
    United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of the Gratz College Holocaust Oral History Archive

    Physical Details

    Language
    English
    Extent
    2 sound cassettes (60 min.).

    Rights & Restrictions

    Conditions on Access
    There are no known restrictions on access to this material.
    Conditions on Use
    No restrictions on use

    Keywords & Subjects

    Personal Name
    Goldsmith, Daniel, 1931-

    Administrative Notes

    Provenance
    The Gratz College Holocaust Oral History Archive conducted the interview with Daniel Goldsmith in Philadelphia, Pa., on February 6, 1995. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum received the tapes of the interview from Gratz College in August 2003.
    Record last modified:
    2023-11-16 08:36:33
    This page:
    https:​/​/collections.ushmm.org​/search​/catalog​/irn515625

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