Henry Weinstock (1934–2021) was one of the Hidden Children of the Holocaust. Born in Antwerp, Belgium, he was eight years old when Nazi Germany occupied the country in 1940.
In 1942, as Jews were being deported to so-called “areas in the East” (later understood to be extermination camps), his father made the extraordinary decision to entrust him to a Catholic priest, Édouard Froidure, known as l’Abbé Froidure. Henry was baptized and given a new identity, Henry Albert Gérard, and was sheltered with other Jewish children in a facility outside Brussels.
On October 9, 1942, the site was raided by Nazi forces. L’Abbé Froidure was arrested and later deported to Dachau. Henry was moved between additional Catholic homes and institutions, where clergy and staff risked their lives to protect him and other hidden children.
In 1945, Henry was miraculously reunited with his father, who had survived imprisonment in Buchenwald. L’Abbé Froidure also survived Dachau. Henry and his father later immigrated to New York.
