Born: Hirsch Kramarz
Łódź, Poland
1904
Died: May 11, 2001
Henri Cramarz was born in 1904 in Łódź, at a time when the city belonged to the Russian Empire. He was ten years old when World War I began in 1914. His father, a wine merchant, died of a heart attack, leaving Cramarz’s mother to care for their seven children. After the war, Łódź became part of the newly independent country of Poland. Cramarz completed elementary school and worked odd jobs to help feed his family. Eventually he became a furrier and moved to Belgium, where his daughter Pauline was born in 1936.
When the German army invaded Belgium in May 1940, Cramarz bribed German officials to delay his deportation. He went into hiding during the war and his daughter was placed in a convent and orphanage in Ardennes. The family then relocated to Louvain where he worked at the Sacré Cœur convent in Tervuren. Cramarz escaped discovery by posing as a Catholic priest and assuming the identity of the deceased Louis Van Bollingen. The family was reunited after the war and immigrated to the United States in 1950.
Parents:
Father, d. before World War II
Mother, survived
Siblings:
Brother, survived
Sister, survived
Four other siblings, unknown
Wife:
Eva Ejdelberg Cramarz, survived
Daughter:
Pauline Cramarz Rubin, survived