Biography
Tony Susskind Weber (born Tauba Suesskind) is the daughter of Salomon Suesskind and Malka Leah Gutgold. Tauba was born in Antwerp on November 4, 1927. Her father, Salomon, was the son of a rabbi in Bochnia Poland, who moved to Belgium at the age of 26 and worked as a diamond dealer. He had nine children from a previous marriage of whom only five survived the war. Salomon and Malka married in Antwerp in 1924, and their first child, David, was born the following year. Salomon passed away from natural causes in 1935, leaving Malka a widow with two young children. She made a living by selling linens for dowries. When war broke out in Belgium in May 1940, Malka tried to flee to Dunkirk with her children. However, they were unable to reach their destination due to the crowding on the roads and had to return to their own apartment. Later they had to move to the Jewish quarter; Tauba attended public school and David studied in a Yeshiva. Tauba also attended the Bnai Akiva religious Zionist youth movement. The situation in the Jewish quarter was difficult, and the family did not have enough to eat, especially after the end of 1941 when Malka could no longer work. David joined the Belgium Communist Resistance, and Tauba participated as well. In 1942 the family received a deportation order to Malines, the Belgian concentration camp. After receiving the order, Tony's mother sold their remaining silver and jewels and bought two false identity cards for Tony and David. She also hired a smuggler to take them to either France or Switzerland. Meanwhile Malka went into hiding with a former maid, but she occasionally returned to her apartment to bring food to an elderly Jewish neighbor who had stayed behind. Malka was caught during one of these excursions and deported to Auschwitz where she perished in 1942. Tauba and David reached the village of St. Morez where they had to pass a border control. Tony jumped from the bus and escaped, but her brother was caught. Another boy on the bus who had instructed her to jump asked her if she was Jewish. He took her to a café, which turned out to be a hiding place for the Maquis (the French underground) and went to find David. The young stranger managed to free Tauba's brother who had been taken to the local prison. He then escorted Tauba, David and a group of Jews to the Jura Mountains where they remained for three days. He carried Tauba for much of the way, since her feet were swollen and full of open wounds. They reached the Swiss border after almost two weeks on the road. He also gave Tauba some money before he disappeared. Soon after they crossed into Switzerland, the siblings were caught and sent back to a no man's land where they hid in the bushes. After a few days, they waited for the border control to pass and crossed the border again, this time successfully. They were sent to a Jewish family who bought them boat tickets to Lausanne. From there they went by train to Zurich and then to the Adliswil labor camp. Tony who was very sick and suspected of having TB was hospitalized. There she met, Annie Pflueger, the head of the Swiss Quakers who helped care for her for the next three years until Tauba immigrated to Palestine in 1945
