Names Not Numbers

Cecilia Blau

Antwerp, Belgium

In Hiding

1938

Cecilia Blau

Antwerp, Belgium

1938

Cecilia Blau was born in Antwerp, Belgium, in 1938. Her family originally came from Czechoslovakia but moved to Belgium in 1936. Cecilia, along with her younger brother, was born in Belgium, and her father’s sister, who was single, also moved in with them. Her father opened a grocery store while her mother stayed at home to care for the children.

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In 1940, when the Nazis occupied Belgium, the family found an agency that helped women and children escape the war zone. Cecilia’s mother, aunt, and her older and younger sisters packed their bags and boarded a train to France.

From there, they traveled through a canal and eventually reached England, where they stayed for part of the war.

During the German attacks on England, they had to rush to a shelter in the yard, a hiding place underground. On one occasion, there was a fire while they were running to the shelter. Later, during air raid alarms, they had to go underground again. Once, Cecilia was separated from her mother during the chaos.

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In England, they could not work but received support from the Czechoslovak government. Because of the dangerous bombings in London, Cecilia and her brother were sent to the suburbs without their mother, who was relocated to Manchester. After the bombings ended, the family reunited and moved back to London.

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At that time, Cecilia’s father attempted to join the Czechoslovak army but was caught and sent to a concentration camp in France. He managed to escape but was captured again and sent to Auschwitz. From there, he was transferred to the Mauthausen camp for forced labor, where he was killed.

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After the war, in 1947, Cecilia and her family joined her mother’s aunt in Manhattan. They filled out the necessary forms and eventually arrived in the United States.

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Names Not Numbers

Cecilia Blau

Cecilia Blau

The End