Lawrence McColm, Holocaust Survivor

Lawrence McColm was born Marcel Fachler in Antwerp, Belgium, on September 3, 1939. He is half Sephardic as his father Joseph, was born in Jaffa, Palestine when it was ruled by the Ottoman empire. At 18 months old, following the German invasion of Belgium, he was placed in an orphanage on the border of Belgium and France, which was run by Christian women and Catholic priests. He was hidden here with a false identity from May 1941 to March 1944.

During Nazi inspections, he was routinely hidden in an empty oil drum in the attic, breathing through drilled holes, while pepper was scattered around the drum to deter attack dogs. After three years, he was moved to a farm near Antwerp. After liberation, he reunited with his family in Brussels and then moved back to Antwerp. He continued to face severe antisemitism in Belgium, and due to the trauma—including a formative incident where a farmer taught him, "Never trust anyone"—he began denying his Jewishness, a mindset that lasted until he was 75.

After careers as a pastry chef, diamond cleaver, and global gem trader, he moved to the United States and, due to his traumatic experiences, legally reverted his name to his wartime identity, Lawrence Allan McColm. It was only at age 75 that he publicly acknowledged his Jewish identity and began sharing his story of survival.