ContentsPrefaceIntroduction1.Ruchla2.Unveiling My Father3.New Beginnings For Ruchla And Szapsa 4.War5.Anti-Jewish Measures In Belgium & Resistance6.Nazi Presecution In Europe7.New Anti-Jewish Measures8.A Hidden Child9.The Noose Tightens 10.Yellow Star11.Pseudo-Scientific Medicine 12.Mechelen/Malines13.Transport II14.Jean-Pierre15.A Royal Intervention16.Transport XX17.Carefree Days On The Farm18.Aunt Celina And Uncle Fiszel Are Arrested19.Transport XXIII20.Celina In Birkenau21.Transport XXIV22.Charles In Birkenau23.Subcamps24.Rosa In Block 1025.Commandant Walter Quakernack26.Rosa In Birkenau27.Charles In Laurahutte28.Rosa And Celina In Bergen-Belsen 29.Charles In Evacuated From Laurahutte30.Rosa And Celina In Aschersleben31.Charles In Gusen II32.Evacuation From Aschersleben33.Charles In Hannover34.Majer Pila35.Forced Labor36.More Forced Labor37.Majer In Birkenau38.Majer In Janina39.Majer’s Last Days In Birkenau And The Death March40.Mittelbau-Dora41.Liberation42.Now What?43.Rosa Looks For Charles 44.Reunion 45. A New Mother46.Settling In47.Postscript48.PostscriptEpilogueAcknowledgementsPhotosSourcesAmsterdam Publishers Holocaust LibrarySuggested Further Reading About The AuthorsA Jewish couple give their baby to friends before deportation, unaware that their friends spy for the British. Both parents suffer unimaginably. One returns. It’s the worst day of their son’s life.Belgium, 1941. Rosa and Charles Russ give their newborn son, Jean-Pierre, to their non-Jewish friends for safekeeping; they are not aware that the couple is involved in espionage for the British, putting their baby in grave risk. In the home where they’ve placed their son, soirees are held for high-level Nazis who believe that the baby they bounce on their knees is Christian. The alcohol flows along with German secrets.In April 1944, Rosa and Charles are arrested and sent to Auschwitz. Both endure barbaric treatment in multiple camps. One parent succumbs a mere month before the end of WWII. The other survives to reclaim Jean-Pierre. This stranger’s appearance, he recalls, is the worst day of his life. Thoroughly and meticulously researched, The Journey of a Hidden Child traces the Holocaust trajectories of Charles and Rosa, as well as Jean-Pierre’s years as a hidden child. It is a story of unimaginable sacrifice and courage, testifying to the strength of the human spirit and the ability to build a new life from scratch.Belgium, 1941. Rosa and Charles Russ give their newborn son, Jean-Pierre, to their non-Jewish friends for safekeeping; they are not aware that the couple is involved in espionage for the British, putting their baby in grave risk. In the home where they’ve placed their son, soirees are held for high-level Nazis who believe that the baby they bounce on their knees is Christian. The alcohol flows along with German secrets.In April 1944, Rosa and Charles are arrested and sent to Auschwitz. Both endure barbaric treatment in multiple camps. One parent succumbs a mere month before the end of WWII. The other survives to reclaim Jean-Pierre. This stranger’s appearance, he recalls, is the worst day of his life. Thoroughly and meticulously researched, The Journey of a Hidden Child traces the Holocaust trajectories of Charles and Rosa, as well as Jean-Pierre’s years as a hidden child. It is a story of unimaginable sacrifice and courage, testifying to the strength of the human spirit and the ability to build a new life from scratch.