My Voice: Jacques Weisser: Hidden pieces

As an infant in Antwerp, Jacques Weisser entered the world at a moment of acute danger for Belgian Jews. When his mother was arrested and deported to Auschwitz in 1942, Jacques was left without a parent to protect him. Classified under a temporary Nazi edict sparing children under five, he was moved between an orphanage, hospital and secret hiding place in the Ardennes, surviving only through the intervention of resistance networks and the extraordinary courage of Catholic caregivers. He spent much of the war malnourished, ill and unaware of his family’s fate. After liberation, Jacques was eventually located by relatives and raised in Belgium before later living in England, Southern Rhodesia and Israel. As an adult, he devoted himself to Holocaust remembrance and education, rediscovering his early history through archival research and reconnecting with other hidden children. Jacques’s book is part of the My Voice book collection, a stand-alone project of The Fed, the leading Jewish social care charity in Manchester, dedicated to preserving the life stories of Holocaust survivors and refugees from Nazi persecution who settled in the UK. The oral history, which is recorded and transcribed, captures their entire lives from before, during and after the war years. The books are written in the words of the survivor so that future generations can always hear their voice. The My Voice book collection is a valuable resource for Holocaust awareness and education. -- .