Flora Singer was born Flora Mendelovics (later changed to Mendelowitz) in Berchem, a suburb of Antwerp, Belgium in 1930. Her parents, David and Fani (née Davidovits), immigrated from Romania to Antwerp in the late 1920s to escape antisemitism. Flora’s father owned a store, where he sold handcrafted furniture. Her mother helped with the business. Flora was the oldest of three girls. Her younger sisters were Charlotte (born 1933) and Betty (born 1936). The family spoke Yiddish at home and with other Jews in their community.
Antwerp had an active Jewish community, many of whom, like Fani and David, were immigrants. There were butcher shops, bakeries, and stores that sold foods which were prepared according to Jewish dietary laws. Flora began learning to speak Flemish in kindergarten at public school. She also attended a Yiddish school in the afternoons where she learned, among other things, to read and write in Yiddish. The family visited their extended family in Romania and Flora met her grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.
In 1937, her father lost his shop for economic reasons. He found work as a carpenter on steamships and traveled several times between Belgium and Canada. In 1938, on one of his trips to Canada, David’s sister, who had immigrated to New York years earlier, successfully encouraged him to come to the United States and stay. She was fearful of the rise and expansion of Nazi Germany. After illegally crossing the border, he made plans for his wife and daughters to join him. Unfortunately, the rest of the family struggled to get the necessary paperwork.
A Jewish mother poses with her two young children in a park in Antwerp, Belgium. Pictured from right to left are: Fani, Charlotte and Flora Mendelowicz. —US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Flora Mendelowicz Singer.
When Flora was nine years old, Nazi Germany invaded and occupied Belgium. The German occupiers imposed antisemitic restrictions on Belgium’s Jewish community. Like many Belgians, Jewish and Gentile, Fani decided to flee to France, hoping to outrun the German occupation. She took Flora and Betty with her, but left Charlotte because she was away at a summer camp. The Germans quickly occupied northern France as well and after several difficult weeks Fani, Betty and Flora returned to Antwerp and were reunited with Charlotte.
In German-occupied Belgium, Flora and her family were subjected to antisemitic regulations. Flora and her sisters were particularly devastated when they could no longer attend school, play in the park, go to the movies, or buy ice cream just because they were Jewish. In April 1941, Flora witnessed the Antwerp pogrom, in which Belgians collaborating with the Nazis attacked Jewish-owned businesses and burned several synagogues.
Beginning in June 1942, Jews in Belgium were required to wear a yellow Star of David badge on their clothing. Shortly afterwards, in August 1942, the systematic deportation of Jews from Belgium to Auschwitz-Birkenau killing center began. Thanks to a family friend from Germany who was serving as a member of the German occupation forces in Antwerp, the Mendelovics family managed to avoid being rounded up for deportation. In August 1942, he warned Fani that she and her three daughters should leave Antwerp. This warning almost certainly saved their lives. Shortly after they left, there was a raid in their neighborhood.
Flora, her mother, and sisters fled to Brussels, where Fani’s sister Leah was living with her husband and son. The Mendelovics family took on a new last name “Fiers” and for a time lived openly as Gentiles. But, fearful of discovery, they eventually decided to go into hiding. Flora and her sisters were separated from their mother and hidden in convents in Belgium. Their mother continued to live under a false Christian identity in Brussels. The four of them survived thanks to the efforts of resistance fighter Georges Ranson, Father Bruno Reynders (a Benedictine monk), and others. They were liberated in October 1944. Father Reynders was recognized as Righteous Among the Nations in 1964, and Georges Ranson was recognized in 1994.
Flora lost many members of her extended family in the Holocaust. Her mother’s sister Leah Ciechanow and Leah’s husband Alex, and their three year old son Nathan were discovered in hiding and deported from Belgium to Auschwitz in May 1944. They learned that Leah and Nathan did not survive and that Alex was killed after the war. Her many aunts, uncles, and cousins lived in a part of Romania that was annexed by Hungary in 1940 and were deported from Hungary to Auschwitz in 1944. Most did not survive.
In 1946, Flora, her mother and sisters immigrated to the United States, where they reunited with David. Flora first worked as a dressmaker, then completed her schooling, and became a teacher. Flora volunteered at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and an elementary school in Montgomery County, Maryland is named for her.