With the Auschwitz Decree, Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler (1900–1945) ordered the deportation of all ‘Gypsies’ from the territory of the German Reich on 16 December 1942. On 29 March 1943, the order was also issued for occupied Belgium and the departments of France which were under the command of the military commander for Belgium and northern France. The arrests began in mid-October 1943 and were to lead to 352 Sinti and Roma being sent to the ‘SS transit camp’ in Mechelen and deported from there to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp.
Some people managed to escape the raids; their stories are analysed in more detail below. Whether they managed to escape arrest and thus deportation depended on various factors, including personal or family strategies. These strategies included changing of habits, changing region and sometimes going into hiding. However, success also depended on language skills as well as economic and social conditions. The cases that have been researched display a variety of escape attempts and survival strategies.
Arrests and Escapes
On 25 November 1943, units of the Feldgendarmerie sealed off a district of the city of Roubaix near Lille to arrest the ‘Gypsies’. In Rue Edouard Anseele, Maurice Theer (1932–2012), who was just twelve years old, was in the toilet on the landing when he heard the gendarmes knocking on the door. He did not move and thus escaped arrest, while his mother, brother and sisters were taken to the Feldgendarmerie headquarters. In the same street, the sister of Gervaise Schmitt (1931–unknown) hid in an attic with her husband.
Victor Hoffmann (biographical data unknown), who also managed to escape over the roofs, saw his entire family, his parents and siblings, arrested. Jacques (1907–unknown) and Alexis Schuhmacker (1930–unknown) also fled and worked for farmers in hiding until the end of the war. However, it is not clear whether they fled during the raid or during their transfer from Roubaix to the Dossin barracks.
Some people were not at home. Jacques-Pierre Schmitt’s daughter Léa Alexandrine (called Tcha-tchaï) (biographical data unknown) was staying with her aunt in Souchez, Pas-de-Calais, while her family was arrested in Roubaix. Julie Alderboom (called Coco) (1913–2008) was selling baskets in Frévent, also in Pas-de-Calais, when nine members of her family were arrested elsewhere in town.
The Mehrsteins, who had been living in Pont-de-la-Deûle (North) for a while, were warned of the impending raid and took precautions to hide. However, this only worked for a short time. They were arrested a month later, on 25 November 1943, in Roubaix.
In Tournai, the police report of 23 November 1943 stated that some ‘Nomades’ had managed to escape, including Clara Modis (1923–1987), who found refuge in Tournai with a family that had been spared from the roundup.
Jean Galut (called Yayal) (1928–2014), who was arrested by the gendarmerie in Brussels and taken to the Rekkem asylum, learned that his wife Jeanne Modis (called Paprika) (1925–1997) and his entire family had been arrested in Mechelen. He wrote to the management of the transit camp in Mechelen and expressed his wish to be allowed to join his family. His mail was intercepted by the director of the asylum in Rekkem and Jean Galut remained imprisoned in Rekkem until the liberation of Belgium.
Escape to France
Faced with the increasing threat, many of those affected fled. After repeated house searches in his neighbourhood in Roubaix, Gervaise Schmitt’s uncle decided to go to Lyon in the unoccupied zone of France shortly before the raid in November 1943. However, the Service du travail obligatoire (STO), which was introduced in France on 16 February 1943, posed the risk of being conscripted for forced labour in the German Reich. This prompted many men born between 1920 and 1922 to go into hiding.
François Alderboom (1899–1963) knew that he was wanted: He was considered a deserter and ‘workshy’ and was categorised as an ‘asocial’. He therefore fled to Brittany. Bernard Lagrené (1914–unknown), the twin brother of Michel Lagrené (1914–1944), who was in the same situation, hid in Savoy.
Maurice Theer (1932–2012) and Léa Alexandrine Schmitt (biographical data unknown), who were still children, and 18-year-old Julie Alderboom (1913–2008) were probably able to escape arrest with the help of their family. Victor Hoffman (biographical data unknown), who hid in Paris and the surrounding area throughout the occupation, frequently changed locations to avoid being discovered and denounced. He was supported by priests. However, help from mainstream society was rare. Indifference was the rule.
In the end, though, it remains impossible to be sure or even to estimate how many people escaped the raids that were carried out in occupied Belgium and northern France, because there are few witness statements and only a few documents have survived in the archives.
