Rare Photograph of a Survivor from the Breendonk Camp – The Emaciated Prisoner Nathan Maringer Preparing Soup Over a Makeshift Fire in the Camp Grounds. September 3, 1944.
The back of the photograph is inscribed in handwriting:
“The exhausted prisoner Nathan Maringer makes himself soup in Breendonk at the liberation of the camp by the Allies. September 3, 1944.”
Nathan Maringer was born in Krakow, Poland, in 1899. Before World War II, he resided in Antwerp, Belgium. For further information about him, see the Yad Vashem Names Database list no. 8998442
here .
During the German occupation of Belgium in World War II, Breendonk served as a detention camp, where Jews from the Belgian community were also imprisoned. On September 20, 1940, the first prisoners arrived at the fortress. In the camp’s first year, Jews comprised about half of the inmate population, and they were held separately from the other prisoners. Among those incarcerated were Rabbi Shlomo Ullman, the Chief Rabbi of the Belgian Jewish community, and the leaders of the Jewish Association of Belgium. On average, prisoners remained in the fortress for about three months before being deported to concentration camps in Germany, Austria, and Poland. Inmates suffered from harsh living conditions, starvation, denial of medical care, and brutal treatment by the camp staff, while also being subjected to forced labor. The Germans also carried out interrogations, torture, and executions by hanging at the fortress. Political prisoners were subjected to brutal torture during interrogations. In August 1944, as Allied forces approached Belgium, the Germans began evacuating the Breendonk fortress. During these months, executions in the camp increased significantly – by shooting, hanging, and other means. Many prisoners were executed immediately upon arrival at the camp. Simultaneously, the Germans transferred remaining inmates to Mechelen camp or to camps in the Netherlands, Germany, and Poland. The first German commander of the fortress, Philipp Schmitt, was tried in Belgium in 1949, found guilty, sentenced to death, and executed in 1950.
9×14 cm. Very good condition.
