The Holocaust is one of the cruelest moments in our past, with more than 6 million Jewish lives lost at the hands of Adolf Hitler. While the horrors of the past can never be forgotten, there are some who try to work through the painful past that still haunts so many.
For 55-year-old Lionel Rossler of Belgium, this was his hope for his father: That he and his mother could finally find peace with their tragic past. David Rossler, now 85, along with his wife, Haja Sura Zoltak, were both saved from what could have been a fate shared by so many others – being taken to a concentration camp.
Georges Bourlet, along with his four teenagers, Paul, Jacques, Anne-Marie, and Christiane, helped save a young Jewish boy and his mother in Auderghem, Brussels in 1944. Photo from MyHeritage
David was born in 1938. He and the rest of his family lived in Brussels, Belgium, as Hitler took power. As persecution of Jewish families bega, David’s family would move constantly to avoid being captured by Nazis. Sadly at one point, his father, and an uncle, were arrested by the Nazis. They never saw the two men again.
David, who was just 5 at the time, along with his mother, were able to hide in a Catholic convent. But their safe spot soon became a place of danger when it was raided. However, the pair managed to escape, having been saved by Georges Bourlet, along with his four teenagers, Paul, Jacques, Anne-Marie, and Christiane, in Auderghem, Brussels in 1944.
Because of his heroic action, Georges was able to save the lives of my father and grandmother. Nine people were saved thanks to what he did; my brother, myself and our children would not be here today if not for his courage and kindness,” Lionel said.
After the war ended in 1945, David and his mother, who had remarried sometime later, eventually lost touch with the Bourlets. But for Lionel, he wanted to reconnect, and find a way to thank them, as well as help spread his father’s story to others.
The house of Georges Bourlet. Photo from MyHeritage
It took years, but with perseverance and a bit of luck on Facebook, Lionel finally found help from Marie Cappart, a genealogist and manager for an ancestry site in Belgium, called MyHeritage.com. Cappart said, “Ignoring the post was not an option for me. I felt compelled to help. Plus, I love a good research challenge!”
With the records from MyHeritage’s online site, Marie finally tracked down Bourlet’s grandson, as well as other family members. “After browsing records and cross-referencing data, Marie found an Anne-Marie Bourlet, born in Auderghem in 1929. She discovered that this Anne-Marie married someone with the surname Dedoncker and had five children, all of them possibly still alive,” Lionel said.
Marie even managed to find out that some of Bourlet’s family still owned the house where David and his mother were taken to after being rescued. Two months after Marie had began searching, David was able to reunite with the Bourlet family at the house where he had been saved. “It was an incredibly emotional day for us. I was able to see, with my own eyes, the place where my father was kept safe from the Germans all those years ago,” Lionel said.
David Rossler cried when he met with the family of a man who saved him from a Nazi concentration camp when he was a young boy. Photo from MyHeritage
David, who cried when he met with the family, said. “The fact that I’m alive, the fact that I have a family that I am very, very proud of, very happy with, I would tell him that. It is thanks to him. If I had Mr. Bourlet in front of me, I would want to kiss him.”
The Rosslers plan to reach out to The World Holocaust Remembrance Center, and attempt to have Georges Bourlet recognized for his heroic actions. Lionel said, “In Jewish tradition, there is a saying that ‘He who saves one life saves all of humanity.’” Watch the emotional video below.
Source: My Postive Outlooks
