Johanna Oestrich

From a very helpful researcher at the Kazerne Dossin documentation center (message of Jan 7, 2019, sent to Andrew Bloch):

I have researched Johanna's case again and have been able to determine that the information as provided on our website is not correct. <br/>

Johanna was indeed detained at the Dossin barracks on 2 July 1943 and added to the deportation list of Transport XXI. However, she was released a few days later, which we were able to determine based on a note in German from the camp commander that ordered her home to be released for Johanna to return to it. You can find a copy of the note in attachment (copyright holding institute: Kazerne Dossin, Fonds Association of Jews in Belgium). Perhaps Ernest Oppenheimer was involved in getting Johanna out of the camp, but all camp records were destroyed so we have no information regarding the reason for her release. You might be able to find this information on the index cards of the Sicherheitspolizei-Sicherheitsdienst stored at the Archives Service for War Victims (aos_avg@arch.be) in Brussels. Johanna passed away in Brussels on 28 February 1944. We have unfortunately no indication for the cause of death.

Translation of the note:

Unsealing
Mrs. OESTRICH
92, av. Du Castel, Brussels.
Ms. O. was released after a few days in detention via Mechelen. Meanwhile, the above-mentioned apartment has been sealed.
We ask for permission to remove the seals.
Brussels, 5.7.1943.
The authorization to unseal the apartment av. Du Castel 92 is hereby granted.

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The Archives Service for War Victims (aos_avg@arch.be) responded by email (on Jan 8, 2019):

We have found a little file established to the name of OPPENHEIMER Johanna (29/08/1878, Friedberg-Hassen) but unfortunately we don’t learn more information that you have already received from Kazerne Dossin.

• Detained at the Dossin barracks on 2 July 1943
  
• Appears on the deportation list of Transport XXI, under the number 1089 (departure 31/07/1943)
  
• As she passed away in Brussels on 26 February 1944, our service had supposed she was escaped from the Transport. But as we can see in the document transmitted by Kazerne Dossin, was she liberated after a few days. An escape from the transport is then certainly a bad conclusion from our service…
  

In the file, we can only find the index card established to her name by the Sicherheitspolizei-Sicherheitsdienst during the war and 3 documents established on 1957, at the moment of our researches (attestation of deportation established by our service with an information of escape, two conform abstracts of the registers of Woluwé-Saint-Lambert: one about her decease in 1944 and one about his registration as stranger).

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Given the research mentioned above, the information at the links below is not correct.

Photograph: https://beeldbank.kazernedossin.eu/index.php/image/watch/c9f91f03b7...

Transport list: https://beeldbank.kazernedossin.eu/index.php/image/watch/8be5d5dfad...

https://yvng.yadvashem.org/nameDetails.html?language=en&itemId=1160...

https://yvng.yadvashem.org/nameDetails.html?language=en&itemId=7856118

Johanna Oestrich nee Oppenheimer was born in Friedberg Hessen, Germany in 1878. She was a housewife and a widowed. During the war she was in Caserne Dossin (Malines-Mechelen), Belgium. Deported with Transport XXI from Caserne Dossin (Malines-Mechelen),Camp,Belgium to Auschwitz Birkenau,Extermination Camp, Poland on 31/07/1943.

Eintrag im »Gedenkbuch« des Bundesarchivs:

• Oestrich, Johanna
• geb. Oppenheimer
• geboren am 29. August 1878
• in Friedberg/Hessen
• wohnhaft in Friedberg / Hessen
• EMIGRATION
• Belgien
• DEPORTATION
• ab Mechelen (Malines)
• 31. Juli 1943, Auschwitz, Konzentrations- und Vernichtungslager