Dora Galimidi was born 6 April 1908 in Karebjan, Turkey. The economic decline of the Ottoman Empire, poverty, rising anti-Semitism and military service resulted in many Turks, including Jewish Turks, moving abroad at the beginning of the 20th century, including Dora and her future husband Jacques Halila, a trader from Istanbul. Jacques came to Belgium in 1927 and arranged for Dora, who was his fiancée at the time, to come to Belgium in 1929. Dora arrived in Belgium in January 1930; a few months later, on 22 July 1930, Jacques and Dora married. The couple settled in Antwerp. In 1932 Dora and Jacques had a daughter, Corine. Six years later the couple had a second daughter, Ida. They lived in the Bredestraat in Antwerp and probably continued to live there until their arrest in 1943.
Dora was 35 when she was taken to Kazerne Dossin together with her husband and children. Daughters Corine and Ida were 12 and 5 years old at the time. On 13 December 1943 they were put on Transport Z, the first of four Sonder transports. The transport did not depart directly from Mechelen. Because it was organised by the Judenabteilung in Brussels, the 132 deportees were taken to Brussels-North railway station. From there, they undertook the second part of the journey by passenger carriage accompanied by Walloon SS men. The Nazis split the group into two in Brussels. The 68 men were sent to Buchenwald and the 64 women and children to Ravensbrück. Jacques was consequently separated from his wife and daughters. The women and children arrived at Ravensbrück on the evening of 16 December 1943.
The reason why Dora and her family were taken to concentration camps rather than extermination camps was because they had a special status. They were “political Jews” and were therefore subject to a special regime depending on the diplomatic and military connections of their country of origin. Jews from certain countries with this status, could potentially be exchanged for German prisoners of war. However, this was merely a pretext used by the German regime, since in reality only a small number of exchanges took place. Although their status as “political Jews” initially protected them, Dora and her family were eventually rounded up.
One of the few exchanges to take place with so-called “political Jews” was the exchange of several Jewish Turks for Germans still in Turkey after the country severed diplomatic ties with Germany in August 1944. The exchange was initiated with mediation from the International Red Cross. On 4 March 1945 a convoy of 105 Turkish Jews left the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. In Lübeck 15 women and children from Ravensbrück were added. They included Dora and her daughters Ida and Corine. The group was taken to Istanbul, where they arrived on 10 April 1945, having travelled for five weeks . The Turkish government refused citizenship to most of them and placed them in a refugee camp on the island of Moda. They were not able to return to Belgium until 19 November 1945.
Jacques Halila managed to escape from the evacuation train from Rehmsdorf in April 1945. He was able to reach the Allied lines under his own steam and was brought back to Belgium by plane from Czechoslovakia. Jacques and his family found each other again two years after they left Dossin.
Of the 132 deportees on Transport Z, 72 survived the camps. Dora, Jacques and their daughters Corine and Ida also survived the war.
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