Sint-Erasmus hospital in Borgerhout (Antwerp)

[1] In August 1942, Antwerp Governor Jan Grauls declared, by order of the occupying authorities, that the Sint-Erasmus hospital was the only hospital in Antwerp in which it was still allowed to treat Jewish patients.

In all other municipal and private hospitals and sanatoriums, it became forbidden to treat Jews.

In Meisjeshuis, all 25 Jewish orphans who had already reached the age of five were arrested and taken to the Dossin barracks, the former transit camp in Mechelen.

In a series of rescue actions, a total of 10 Jewish children were taken from there to the Sint-Erasmus hospital, where they all went into hiding.

Bill Frankenstein (born as Bernard Baron) and Werner Szydlow, two of the rescued children, described their stay in the hospital as follows:

Hidden Jewish children at the Sint-Erasmus hospital during the Second World War. The boy on the left is Werner Szydlow. The boy in the middle is Bill Frankenstein (born as Bernard Baron).
Some of the hidden Jewish children on hospital grounds with a nurse. The boy marked with an X is Werner Szydlow.
Werner Szydlow, one of the rescued children of Meisjeshuis, with the head nurse during his period in hiding in the Sint-Erasmus hospital in Borgerhout, Antwerp.