Curtla Sutnik
Curtla was born in Warsaw, Poland on July 27, 1902 to Josek and Myriam Suknik. She moved in with her older brother, Szyja, who resided in a home in Belgium in 1929. Later, Curtla married Natan Rozenblum, who had a history of involvement within the communist party, at the Brussels town hall in 1931.
They moved to Rue du Telegraphe where they owned a tailoring workshop. Their son, Charles, was born six weeks later. Throughout their marriage, Natan participated in Jewish communist circles and acted in favor of their interaction with Secours Rouge. While Curtla worked as a seamstress at their shared shop, she supported her husband’s actions in these different groups. Natan’s Polish nationality forced him to be drafted into the army.
With the injuries he sufficed during the war, he was released to heal in a hospital in Brassiere, France. Soon after recovering, he returned to Belgium to his wife. Both Curtla and Natan obeyed the anti-Jewish decrees that were implemented by the Third Reich. In 1941, they. Had their IDs stamped with the label, “Jood-Juif.” They also joined the Association of Jews in 1942.
To protect Curtla, Natan joined the underground resistance and took a position for the Jewish Defense Committee. As his actions against the regime were discouraged by the Nazis, they hid in an apartment that was given to them by Michael Moerenhout, a communist resistance fighter.
Sadly, Natan was arrested that the beginning of 1944 and deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau to perform forced labor. Despite overcoming 11 months in custody and multiple death marches, he passed away in the Buchenwald concentration camp in 1945. Curtla and her son survived the war in hiding. While they were separated during the period of time, they were reunited after liberation. Together, they settled in Brussels for the remainder of their lives.
Written by Emma Rieser