A man has returned to the home he and his mother hid in from the Nazis nearly 80 years ago - while his uncle and grandad died in Auschwitz. David Rossler, 85, was just five years old when he and his mother, Haja Sura Zoltak, were hidden by the Bourlet family at their home in Brussels, Belgium.
David's son, Lionel Rossler, 55, tried for years to find the family that hid his father and grandmother - saving their lives during the Holocaust. When he took to social media to ask for help, MyHeritage genealogist Marie Cappart, responded and offered to help with his search.
Thanks to her research, Lionel and his Holocaust survivor father, David, were able to meet the descendants of David’s rescuer, in the very place he hid 80 years ago. David, a holocaust survivor, from Brussels, Belgium, said: "If I had Mr Bourlet in front of me, I would want to kiss him.
"I would want to say thank you with all my body, with all my life, I am alive. I have a family of which I am very, very, very proud of, to tell him that my life is thanks to him."
David Rossler was born David Langa in 1938, and his family lived in Brussels, Belgium, when the persecution of the Jewish community by the Nazis began. David's family moved many times over the course of the war and at one point his grandfather and uncle were arrested and taken to Auschwitz.
David was a young boy when he and his mother were taken in by a Catholic convent in Brussels, but shortly after the convent was raided. David and his mother escaped and were taken to the Bourlet family home, where they were hidden.
Georges Bourlet and his four young adult children, Paul, Jacques, Anne-Marie, and Christiane, gave them shelter in Auderghem, Brussels, towards the end of the war in 1944. David's son, Lionel, from Rebecq, Belgium, said: "Because of his heroic action, Georges was able to save the lives of my father and grandmother.
"Nine people were saved thanks to what he did. My brother, myself, and our children would not be here today if not for his courage and kindness.
"After the war, my grandmother remarried, and my father took the last name of his stepfather, who was a survivor of Auschwitz. They moved to Austria and lost touch with the Bourlet family."
Lionel had searched for the Bourlet family for years with no success until one day in 2022. Lionel received a message from Marie, from MyHeritage in Belgium, who told Lionel she could help with the search.
He said: "After browsing records and cross-referencing data, Marie found an Anne-Marie Bourlet, born in Auderghem in 1929. She discovered that this Anne-Marie married someone with the surname Dedoncker and had five children, all of them possibly still alive.
"After a bit more research, Marie found Xavier, one of Georges Bourlet’s grandsons, and managed to contact him. She learned that Xavier had heard a little about this story, but not much."
From there, Marie was able to contact other descendants of Georges, including the ones who still owned the family home where David and his mother were kept safe. Lionel and Marie suggested that they should all meet and David should go back and see the home where he was kept safe.
Lionel said: "It was an incredibly emotional day for us. I was able to see, with my own eyes, the place where my father was kept safe from the Germans all those years ago.
"My father returned to the place where his life was saved for the first time in almost 80 years. He had the incredible opportunity to personally thank the descendants of his rescuer for all they did for him and for us.
"In Jewish tradition, there is a saying that 'he who saves one life saves all of humanity'. Georges Bourlet saved humanity nine times over.
"We are submitting our testimony to Yad Vashem in hopes that he will be recognised for his heroism and granted the title of Righteous Among the Nations."
