Ignacy (Icho) Eduard Honig

Ignacy Ignaz Ignace "Icho" etc. Eduard HONIG: b. 23 July 1904, Lwow - d. ?, Belgium?

Information courtesy of various sources, including the following:

The experiences of the two friends Ignacy HONIG & Haim SALOMON.:

Haim Leiser Salomon

Details of this incredible story to be found in only a few sources, all of them in French such as:

resistance-dans-les-alpes-maritimes pdf.

"Deux évadés d'un camp-satellite d'Auschwitz arrivent à Nice et témoignent à l'été 1943"

page 25, author Philippe Boukara

Plus -

La fuite en Suisse: Les Juifs à la frontière franco-suisse durant les années ... - Ruth Fivaz-Silbermann - Google Books

https://books.google.de/books?id=bmkCEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT136&lpg=PT136&dq...

The main points here in English:

Ignacy HONIG and Haim SALOMON had both moved to Anvers where they were living and working as jewellers until just before the start of World War 2. Ignacy had left his home town of Lwow in 1928 and had married in 1935. One source says that he joined a section of the Polish army in France in 1940 but returned to Antwerp and he and his wife had a son born there in 1942. Other sources say that both Ignacy and Haim fled Belgium in 1940 to go to the "unoccupied" south of France and they each took up residence in Monte-Carlo. In the August 1942 round-ups Ignacy HONIG and his friend Haim SALOMON were arrested and interned in the Caserne Auvare in Nice. Ignacy's wife and two children managed to hide - it is not specified where and how.
The two men were deported first to Drancy and from there, on 7 Sept 1942, Convoi #29, to Kosel, 80 kilometres away from Auschwitz. At this train station stop several hundred men (individuals?) - between the ages of 15 -50 - were selected for labour and Ignacy and Haim were initially sent to Laurahütte, where they spent five months in excruciating conditions suffering lack of food and brutal treatment. They were subsequently moved to a prison in Sosnowiec (Sosnowicz) for two months and after that were transferred to Schöppenitz. This strictly run labour camp was located close to Katowice (Kattowitz), not far off from Auschwitz. In his later testimony Honig recounts that every day the internees were subjected to physical abuse and many died there either as a result of this or from the otherwise dire situation.

On 22 April 1943, after 8 months of detention in this camp, HONIG and SALOMON manage to escape. Various sources emphasise how this was with the help of a local - a "Polish engineer*" Accounts vary but include details such as that this kind person provided them with wire-cutters to make a hole in the perimeter fencing and barbed wire. The pair had apparently managed, with the support of some of their fellow-prisoners, to set aside a store of food and a little money. They were wearing clothing all in white except for their prisoner identification numbers marked on them but they smeared these over with dirt and mud. It was at night that they crept out of the camp and went to hide in a nearby wood. As dawn broke the two men went to the home of this 2Polish engineer* - a father of a family with feelings of compassion towards them - who had given them his address and promised them further aid. He even gave them two completely fresh outfits to wear. And then the pair made their way to Sosnowiec (Sosnowicz) where a Jewish man who had somehow avoided arrest so far was sure to give them support.

From there the two friends travelled to Belgium by taking various trains used by workers on temporary leave. These were rarely checked by officials and if someone did come through the carriages Ignacy and Haim pretended to be asleep. Between trains they slept in field or in the woods and occasionally got something to eat in working men's canteens. With enormous luck, they reached Namur on 2 May, where they were taken into charge by covert Resistance cells. Already there, though, no one could believe their tales ...

HONIG and SALOMON were smuggled separately off to Nice where Ignacy rejoined his wife and child. Together they wrote up a witness account which was published on 1 August 1943 in "Notre Voix" ("Our Voice" - a newsletter for the Jewish section of the French Communist Party). They both revealed the horrific details of their different places of imprisonment. For example, they clearly stated that at Kosel only those individuals who seemed capable for hard labour were chosen to be set aside, while all the other deportees - children, old people, fragile and sick women - were sent on to what the two friends called "Oshevitz". It was common knowledge that this place was a death camp and it was even understood that those going there would be killed immediately on arrival in the most ghastly manner - though exact information on how was not specified.

These terrible stories, despite being in signed testimonies, simply weren't believed - no doubt because they were considered so grotesquely unbelievable. In fact, some sources say that when Ignacy and Haim spoke of their experiences, some people laughed in their face. And, it is said, that Haim started worrying that he might be thought of as untrustworthy - even possibly a spy - while Ignacy also realised that it just wasn't worth trying to tell the truth because - as someone later put it - they were "taken for lunatics", so both friends finally decided to shut up.

HONIG and his family were kept in hiding separately for a while in the Nice area before being moved together secretly to Switzerland on 15th March 1944. At this time Guda HONIG was pregnant with the couple's second son so this factor apparently smoothed their admittance into that country.

A source giving further points on SALOMON's situation states that he was delayed in leaving Belgium because he was unfortunately arrested in a hotel and then complicated his release from the police authorities by insisting that he was a Czech citizen. Apparently, after a short stay in Nice, he ended up in hiding in the Grenoble region until the war was over, when he returned to Belgium to resume his life there until "1982". Apart from the additional notes about his wife, Eugenie née STEINBOCK, on the Mémorial de la Shoah website no further mentions are made about her in any other sources seen so far. N.B. really tricky to work out place of birth of Haim Salomon as the - French and/or archaic or erroneous - name given does not correspond with anything known and also because this town changed hands as the territory was at different times Czech, Slovak, Ukrainian etc. There is a Salamon STEINBOCK listed under Antwerp immigration registrations who may well have originated in Vonihove (yet another variant spelling) and could be related to Haim's wife Eugenie.

It appears actually rather sadly ironic that even to this day Ignacy HONIG and Haim SALOMON's story hasn't been shared much more in public.

Through contact with the granddaughter of the kind and noble Polish man who helped the two escape it is to be hoped that even more can be discovered and disseminated on this remarkable and terrible experience ...

Already certain significant facts can be ascertained:

- the "Polish engineer* was an employee of a company hired to undertake repairs of the nearby railroad tracks. Ignacy HONIG was assigned to forced labour on the rails as well and came into contact with this manager of the repairs who was inevitably also in charge of all sorts of tools used for such work. Taking pity on this prisoner the engineer slipped him a pair of wire-cutters and his home address ...
...

Details from actual IKG-Lwow birth registration, viewable courtesy of:

http://agadd.home.net.pl/metrykalia/300/sygn.%202423/pages/PL_1_300...

illegitimate at birth but later legitimised - marriage? - 27.09.1910

Father: Josef HONIG, "Greisler?" in Lwow

Mother: Regina - aka Rifka - HISS, of Lwow, daughter of Jenty HISS & Wolf PINELES

Belgium/Antwerp immigration registration:

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-6QQ9-8PP?i=335&per...

Ignace Eduard Honig 1916-1930 Antwerpen, Belgium Immigration 1904 Lwow, Poland 217063 004331464 336 20426 20426

Details of deportation and subsequent SURVIVAL courtesy of:

Ignacy HONIG was in the region of Nice, Côte d'Azur, where he was rounded up in the notorious "Rafles d'août" in August 1942. The arrested Jewish citizens were incarcerated in the Caserne Auvare for a while before being put on a goods train, in locked-up wagons, and transferred to Drancy.

cf. Archives Départémentales des Alpes Maritimes:

http://www.basesdocumentaires-cg06.fr/os-html/adam/home.html

HONIG Ignace: Chambre # 501, Voiture # 17

Also cf. listing thanks to:

http://niceoccupation.free.fr/rafle-daout-1942.html

Also cf.

Mémorial de la Shoah

https://ressources.memorialdelashoah.org/notice.php?q=identifiant_origine:(FRMEMSH0408707100315)

Features photo and actual list of deportation (shown here under "Media")

Convoi # 29

But also provides several further details:

- profession as "bijoutier" in Anvers.

- married to Frieda GOLDTEIN

- was with friend Chaim SALOMON, also a jeweller in Anvers

- fled to Monaco

- was deported via Drancy but then ...

- managed to escape and after war returned to Belgium.

And also cf.

Holocaust Survivors and Victims Database -- Ignace HONIG

https://www.ushmm.org/online/hsv/person_view.php?PersonId=5535175

IGNACE HONIG
Sex:Male
Date of Birth:26 Jun 1904
Nationality:Polen [Polish]
Date of Arrival:25 Mar 1944
SOURCE
Title:Jewish Arrivals In Switzerland, 1938-1945
Description:Electronic data regarding refugees who attempted to illegally enter Switzerland. Includes name, gender, birth date, arrival date, nationality, and comments.

An enormous file of documents from Swiss authorities found thanks to and posted by Matt – under “Media” – provides several further telling details about this family.

Most pieces are in French, a few in German. Main points include:

- Gunda HONIG was in a very precarious state of health when the family arrived and sought refuge in Switzerland. She was heavily pregnant but also suffering from critical inflammation of the womb and ovaries so that a potential miscarriage was feared. It was thought right to place her in special care.

- Ignacy HONIG, on the other hand, was both willing and able to work and the Swiss authorities deemed it appropriate to grant him permission to secure some form of employment in order, at least, to assure himself an income. He had proven skills and experience as a goldsmith and suggested he’d also be ready to take on similar mechanical etc. assignments. A jewellery firm in Lausanne, "ProBijou", expressed high interest in hiring him, especially as Christmas approached and they were lacking in staff to fulfill all the extra festive orders. So he worked there until the war was over and his eventual references from this firm were glowing with praise on him: conscientious, dependable, accomplished, though the recommendation was made that he further his skills through additional training.

- At the end of the war the family initially attempted to return to Belgium in a way which was considered “illegal” as it was necessary to await official procedures from Belgian authorities plus subsequent permission to leave Switzerland.

- There are a few more details on other members of especially Gunda’s family – these are still being researched ...

- each family member is separately registered but the majority of papers are in the dossier on Ignacy HONIG. These also include an explanation of his on the reasons for seeking refuge.

A) Ignacy HONIG short report in French to Swiss authorities:

I was born in Lemberg and did all my schooling there, including “Gymnasium”. I completed my apprenticeship as a jeweller there too. I left Lemberg in 1928 and moved to Belgium where I set up my own jewellery-making studio. I remained in Belgium until 1940 when we were obliged to leave because of the war. I went to France where I was mobilised for five weeks until I was removed from my role after the country capitulated to the Germans. In August 1943 I was deported to Poland by the Germans and held prisoner there for 8 months. I succeeded in escaping and made my way back to Belgium where I stayed for two months. I was able to trace the whereabouts of my wife, discovering that she was in Nice, France. I decided to take my wife and son to Switzerland to seek refuge there. We left Nice two weeks ago and headed to Lyon where we stayed with acquaintances before moving on to Annemasse. We took a bus to a little village of which I've forgotten the name. Then we continued on foot to the frontier at around Jussy, where we crossed the border illegally on 15.03.1944 at 17.00 hours. We did not have a permit. We were apprehended by the Customs and transferred to Croquettes and then on to Cahrmilles.”

Note added that is in possession of 500 French francs.

There is another slightly longer report, also in French which will be posted here in an English translation shortly ...

...

(pip - Aug 2023)