We are saddened to hear of the passing of our dear friend, Holocaust survivor Cirla Lewis MBE. May her memory be a blessing.
Cirla was born in Antwerp, Belgium, in 1935 to parents Flore and Jacob. Jacob was originally from Amsterdam in Holland and was a talented painter, known affectionately by the Jewish community as “our Jewish painter”. He set up a business in Belgium, working in film, and met Flore at a dance. After a happy early childhood, she was five years old when the Nazis invaded Belgium in 1940. Her family attempted to travel to Britain via France as refugees but they were unable to find passage.
Upon returning to Belgium, Cirla faced increasing antisemitism and was forced to leave her school as there were rumours that the Gestapo were visiting schools to identify and remove Jewish children. Then, from 1942, all Jews had to wear the yellow Star of David. Cirla’s father Jacob was deported to a French labour camp. He was told to take one suitcase and Cirla and her mother never saw him again. While he was there, he sent them a note which said that he was well, and Flore should take Cirla on “long holiday”. This was a coded message telling them to go into hiding. Her father and grandparents were eventually murdered in Auschwitz.
One night, Cirla was awakened by the sound of German soldiers rounding up Jews in her street. The next morning, Cirla and her mother removed the yellow stars from their coats and walked for miles to the home of Marie Arekens, the mother of Flore’s childhood friend Thylla. Marie, a devout Catholic who lived opposite a building where German soldiers were billeted in Ghent, hid Cirla and her mother until the Resistance arranged another hiding place in a boarding house.
After a few weeks, it became too dangerous to stay in the boarding house, so arrangements were made for Cirla and her mother to be taken in by ‘Tante’ (‘aunt’) Betty and Jean-Louis Liem, who hid them in their house, changing Cirla’s name to the more French sounding ‘Suzy’. A British airman, Tom Young, as well as other members of the Resistance movement, were also hidden in the house. By hiding Jews, Marie Arekens and the Liem family knew they were risking their lives. For 18 months, while Cirla and her mother hid with the Liems, Cirla could not go outside or even near the upstairs window.
Cirla and her mother were liberated by Allied forces in Ghent in 1945. She came to the UK in 1957. Yad Vashem posthumously honoured the Liems and Marie Arekens as ‘Righteous Among the Nations’ in 1997.