Paul-Henri Rips

Paul-Henri Rips was born in to a prosperous Jewish family in Antwerp, Belgium. His parents were Isidore Rips, a merchant in the city's famous diamond exchange, and his wife Faja. He had an older sister, Sina. Paul-Henri was 10 years old when Nazi Germany invaded his homeland in World War II and ended what he later described as his "golden childhood." Paul-Henri, his parents and sister, along with thousands of other refugees, fled to France. They got as far as the River Somme, where German soldiers turned them back, and they returned to Antwerp. Isidore became ill and died in April 1943. Paul-Henri's close cousin Silvain disappeared one day on his way home, never to be seen again. Later the family went to Brussels, where Paul attended boarding school under a false identity. Eventually, they were rounded up and sent to the Pithiviers internment camp and then to the Mechelen (Malines) transit camp, where Paul-Henri received the number E/96. They managed to go into hiding to avoid deportation to Auschwitz until Brussels was liberated by the Allies in September 1944. In 1950, Paul-Henri moved to the Belgian Congo and then to South Africa, where he married his wife Lily. In 1997, the couple emigrated to Toronto, Canada, to join their children and grandchildren. His memoir, E/96: Fate Undecided (French translation Matricule E/96) was published in 2009 as part of the Azrieli Foundation Series of Holocaust Survivor Memoirs.