Guy Hauptman was born on April 20, 1939 in Brussels, Belgium to Sara and Nathan Hauptman. When he was four months old, Sara took him to Paris to join Nathan who had received a draft notice from the Polish government in exile. In 1941, the German army invaded France. Believing their son would be safer with Catholics, the Hauptmans entrusted him to a farmer’s wife, Janette, with the understanding they would return for him. If they did not return, Janette agreed to take him to his grandmother, Chana Rosen, in Brussels. That year, the Nazis arrested and imprisoned Sara for eight months.
Guy’s father, Nathan, immediately took Guy to his grandmother in Belgium, where he lived until she was arrested and sent to a concentration camp. Sara’s nanny hid Guy and helped care for him near Brussels. After her release from prison, Sara gave birth to a daughter, Monique, and began working for the Belgian resistance. She was eventually captured and sent to Auschwitz concentration camp. Guy stayed with the nanny until 1944. Afraid of the danger of discovery, she placed him in a Christian orphanage where he remained until the end of the war. Guy was reunited with his mother, father, and sister, and together they immigrated to the United States in 1951. Guy went on to serve in the U.S. military and settled in El Paso with his wife and children.
Connecting Stories: Monique Hauptman, Nathan Hauptman, Sara Hauptman