Fajga “Fanny” Orenbuch Aizenberg

Fanny Aizenberg was born Fajga Orenbuch on December 3, 1916 in Łódź (then the Russian Empire, today Poland) during World War I. Her parents, Benjamin Orenbuch and Rivka Aspis Orenbuch, both came from Orthodox Jewish families. 

In 1926, Fanny and her family moved to Brussels, Belgium when she was a young girl. They left to escape economic hardship and antisemitism in Łódź. Fanny was the middle of three daughters. Fanny’s family was very active within their community. Benjamin was employed by the Orthodox community of Brussels that coordinated Jewish activities, such as ritual slaughter, and Jewish burials. Rivka was a seamstress. Fanny attended school in Brussels where she learned French and Flemish. She earned a degree in art and design before World War II and found employment among designers creating clothing for the Belgian royal family. In May 1938, Fanny married Jacques “Jack” Aizenberg, a violinist for silent films and a tailor. In March of the following year, Fanny gave birth to their daughter, Josiane.

Nazi Germany invaded Belgium in May 1940. Jacques and his brother fled to England because it was thought that men were likely to be arrested by the Nazis and that women and children would be left alone. The brothers joined the Polish contingent of the British army and worked in a factory making uniforms in London. 

Fanny stayed in Belgium with Josiane where the German occupation forces instituted a variety of antisemitic policies. The clinics where Fanny took one-year-old Josiane for medical care no longer treated Jewish patients. Jewish physicians were dismissed from their positions, Jewish children were not permitted to attend school, and Jews were forbidden to work. Beginning in May-June 1942, all Jews in occupied Belgium had to purchase and wear a yellow star with the letter “J” on it, identifying them as Jews.

Fanny became involved in the Belgian Resistance movement by hiding refugees in her apartment. Through her involvement in the resistance movement, Fanny arranged a hiding place for Josiane. She made the agonizing choice to separate from her young daughter. 

The Germans began to deport Jews from Belgium to Auschwitz-Birkenau killing center in August 1942. In September 1942, the Germans carried out a raid in Brussels, arresting Jews. Among them was Fanny’s father. After the war, Fanny learned from a survivor that he had died on the train en route to Auschwitz. 

Fanny and her mother spent time in multiple hiding places until they were discovered and arrested. She and her mother were beaten by the Gestapo and taken to the Mechelen (Malines) transit camp in Belgium. After ten days in Mechelen, they, along with all other prisoners, were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau killing center in May 1944. 

Upon arrival in Auschwitz, Fanny and her mother underwent selection. They were placed in separate lines. Fanny was selected for forced labor, while her mother was sent to the gas chambers. She never saw her mother again. While a prisoner at Auschwitz, SS doctors performed invasive and traumatizing medical experiments on Fanny. She found encouragement from a group of five other women who helped her to endure beatings, forced labor in a grenade factory, and the many other horrors of Auschwitz. Speaking with these women of her hope to be reunited with her child helped Fanny survive.

In January 1945, the SS evacuated Auschwitz, and Fanny was forced on a death march. After four months, Fanny and the other prisoners were liberated near the Elbe River by the Soviets in April 1945. The Soviets took the prisoners to a makeshift hospital where they were fed and cared for. Shortly afterwards, a delegation from the Red Cross brought Fanny back to Belgium. She was eventually reunited with both Josiane, who had survived in hiding, and Jacques, who returned to their home in Belgium in 1946; he had been seriously injured when his London home was bombed. 

In 1949, the family moved to the United States, where they settled in New Jersey. Fanny lived in the Greater Washington, DC area and volunteered at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum along with her daughter Josiane “Josie” Aizenberg Traum, and Alfred “Freddie” Traum, Josiane’s husband.