Biography
Jacques Leibman (born Isaac Lajbman) is the son of Abraham and Chaja Sura (Radziejewski) Lajbman, a Jewish couple from Poland who had moved to Belgium in the interwar period. Isaac was born on June 22, 1931 in Brussels, where his father worked as a leather goods manufacturer. He has two brothers: Bernard (b. 1938) and Raymond (b. 1946). The Lajbman family remained in Brussels after the German invasion. In the spring of 1942 Isaac's parents secured false papers for themselves and found hiding places for the children. Isaac and Bernard were first hidden in Wilrijk (near Antwerp) and then in Marcinelle (near Charleroi). In both places food and sanitation were very poor, so in September 1942 they were moved to the village of Tourinnes-St. Lambert. There they lived with two separate families: Isaac with Alphonse and Marie Quintin, and Bernard with the Ravet family. Both families treated the children as one of their own until the liberation. Isaac's mother, who paid for their upkeep, was able to visit them once a month. After the war the Lajbman family was reunited and moved to Ixelles, where they remained until immigrating to the United States in 1953-54.