[DIGITAL MUSEUM – ARCHIVES] Ryfka Pschetizki & Moses Götz : Writing to Hold on
Discover the moving story of Ryfka (Rosa) Pschetizki through a recently acquired archive collection at the Jewish Museum of Belgium.
Between 1941 and 1942, Moses Götz, detained in Saint-Gilles, wrote to his wife Ryfka two letters a month—the maximum allowed. Censorship required that only everyday topics be mentioned: laundry, food, health… But between the lines, fear, hope, and love shimmer through.
Ryfka never went anywhere without these letters, precious treasures that bear witness to quiet resistance in the face of horror. After Moses was deported to Auschwitz, these writings remained the last tangible links to their shattered family.
These letters and documents (membership cards, registers, declarations) tell the story of a war experienced daily—filled with care for loved ones, survival strategies, and a memory held dear.
Discover this story in our new video.
From the archives:
1. Ryfka Pschetizki & Moses Abraham Götz in the snow, Antwerp, 1935.
2–3. Letters Moses wrote to Ryfka from Saint-Gilles prison in 1942, later restored and bound by their granddaughter (2012).
2. Envelope of the letter dated April 23, 1942.
3. 1957 statement on Moses’s 1941 arrest for “illegal activities against the Germans.”
4. Ryfka’s membership card of the Association of Jewish Political Prisoners, 1945.
5. Civil Registry extract confirming Moses’s death in 1945 (issued in 1954).
6. Ryfka & Moses in the grass, Ostend, 1938.
