Open Book!
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Names Not Numbers
Lawrence McColm
Lawrence McColm
Lawrence was born as Marcel Fachler in Antwerp, Belgium, on September 3, 1939, just two days after Hitler invaded Poland. He is half Sephardic, as his father, Joseph, was born in Jaffa, Palestine, when it was ruled by the Ottoman Empire. Since Turkey was allied with Germany, his father obtained a Turkish passport from the German authorities.
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This ultimately helped him survive because he was never required to wear the Jewish star. In 1908, Joseph’s family moved to Berlin, Germany. Lawrence’s mother was born in Berlin to Polish parents, and his parents married in 1937.
On May 10, 1940, when Germany invaded Belgium, Lawrence’s family immediately sought a place to hide him, aware that Jewish children were in grave danger.
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At just 18 months old, he was placed in an orphanage run by Christian women and Catholic priests who saved Jewish children by giving them new names and identities. From May 1941 until the end of March 1944, he was hidden in this orphanage, located on the border of Belgium and France. When the SS came searching for Jewish children with their sniffing dogs, which happened regularly, Lawrence was hidden in a motor oil drum in the attic.
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He breathed through two small holes but was in complete darkness. To this day, he cannot tolerate darkness, and every light in his home remains switched on, even when he is not in the room.
Lawrence’s mother visited him twice a year during his time as a hidden child, though he had no idea that he was Jewish or what that meant. His parents were eventually arrested to be sent to concentration camps.
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Fortunately his father managed to persuade the Germans to release him. His mother, who was nine months pregnant, was sent to a hospital to give birth to his sister. The newborn was later taken to the same orphanage where Lawrence was hidden. In March 1944, when the Germans requisitioned the orphanage, he was relocated to a farm near Antwerp. Life on the farm felt like freedom, and he befriended the animals there.
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After the war ended in 1945, Lawrence and his family reunited in Brussels and then moved back to Antwerp. However, antisemitism was still rampant in Belgium, and as a child, Lawrence was beaten and called names. As a teenager, he became a pastry chef, studied ballet, and eventually entered the diamond business. At 26, his mother gave him a one-way ticket to Australia, disapproving of his relationship with a non-Jewish woman.
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Ironically, he ended up marrying a non-Jewish woman and began selling diamonds, traveling the world every six weeks for 15 years to grow his gem business.
For a long time, Lawrence wanted to distance himself from his Jewish identity due to the antisemitism he had endured as a child. In 1987, he moved to Cleveland, Ohio, to work with a friend and legally changed his name to Lawrence McColm in an effort to leave his Jewish heritage behind.
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However, he eventually married a Jewish woman. At the age of 53, he opened a jewelry pawn shop, which he sold when he turned 75, after which he moved to Naples, Florida.
At the age of 77, Lawrence was persuaded to tell his story and reconnect with his Jewish identity. Today, he lives as a proud Jew and speaks publicly about genocide and antisemitism.
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His mother’s parents, who refused to leave Germany, perished in the concentration camps, and Lawrence knows exactly when and where they were killed due to the detailed records kept by the Germans. In total, 21 of his family members were murdered in gas chambers and crematoriums. Later in life, Lawrence discovered that his father had saved 85 Turkish Jewish families during the war.
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He successfully appealed to Yad Vashem to recognize Madeleine Sorel, the woman who ran the orphanage, as a Righteous Gentile for her role in saving Jewish children.
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The End
Lawrence McColm interview at Posnack School, Hochberg Middle School - 2023-2024
Posnack School, Hochberg Middle School
