Figure 1.--These are the younger children at the Wezembeek Jewish orphanage near Brussels. We are not sure why they are only boys. Perhaps the girls are in a different care group. Boys may have had a better chance of survival. We are not sure which boy is Fred. Queen Elizabeth played an important role in their survival.

We believe that Fred's family were Polish nJews that emograted to Germany, but then fled Germany with the rise of the NAZIs and settled in the Flemish area of Belgium. He had a Flemish name. But all of this was unknown to Fred. All he recalled was that he grew up in a Belgian orphanage for Jewish children during the NAZI occupation. It was located in Wezembeek, near Brussels. Even that was a miracle. Largely because of the intervention of Queen Elizabeth, orphans in orohanages and many other Belgian Jews were not deported. NAZI authorities primarily concentrated on foreign Jews. And because Fred spoke Flemish and no one knew who his parents were, it was assumed that he was Belgian. (Actually he was born in Belgium to German refugee Jews.) Some of Fred's earliest memories were listened to the sound of Allied bombers flying overhead toward the Reich to smash Geman cities into rubble. We are not sure what the orohans were told about the situation, but the older children would have known. The staff was Jewish and must have known by 1942 what was happening. That was the case until several years after the War and his uncle showed up at the orphanage to collect him. Until then, Fred knew nothing of his family, but he did know his name (Frans Kader) although not hoiw tgo spell it. And even his uncle had no idea how he had survived. Fred learned about his family and that he was born in Antwerp on July 20, 1938. Over time Fred learned just how he was saved. He was with his mother at the rail station about to be deported. His mother was aware of what was happening. She also relized that blond, blue eyed Fred had a chance to survive. Fred was about 4 years old at the time. She told him to just walk away. an you imagine how difficult that was for his mother. (Fred would learn about this from a woman who had been with his mother who survived Auschwitz.) There is no way of knowing what little Fred was thinking, but he did as he was told. Many 4-year olds would have resisted. He did and was picked up by a nun as he wondered in the street outside the rail station. That is how he got into the Belgian child saving network. Another orphan saved Fred and eventully he arrived at the the Wezembeek Jewish orphanage. Even with Queen Elizabeth on their side, the Wezembeek children were far from safe. There were several close calls. Few Jewish children in Belgium had such happy outcomes as most stayed with their parents. His uncle had assumed that all of his brother's family had perished. He also almost perished, but jumped off the deportation train as it approached the Reich border. (The early deportations were done with regular trains.) Fred and his uncle eventually emigrated to Montreal in Canada. His name became Fred because Canadian Jews mostly associated with Anglo Canadians--another story in itself.

Source

Van Maren, Jonathan, "How one child survived the Holocaust because of his mother’s incredible sacrifice," The Bridgehead (March 4, 2021).

Created: 5:44 AM 3/12/2021
Last updated: 5:44 AM 3/12/2021