His mother, Marie Louise Haeck, was hidden away in the Catholic Basilica where she helped with the cleaning. She was never allowed out of the building for fear of being snatched by the Na.
Strange as it may seem now, almost 70 years later, it was the selfless consciences of many within the Roman Catholic Church that saved the lives of many Jewish children. Joseph Simon was one of these children that was rescued from the murderous hands of the Nazis.
Tiny tot Joseph Simon was placed in a family home in Arlon, Belguim, some 150 kilometres from Brussels. Not until well after the War, in 1947, was the family safely reunited with their mother, Marie Haeck.
Young Joseph, now seven years of age couldn't work out why he would be sent to a lady whom he did not know and whose skin was much darker in colour than his; yet the reunited family made a fist of it under difficult circumstances.
He left school when he was 14 years old and worked in various jobs until, at eighteen, he went into the Belgium Army, where he served for eight years and rose to the rank of First Sergeant. He then migrated to Australia with his wife Josee and their two sons, Joseph jnr and Gustave (Steve in English speaking countries).
It wasn't long before the family had moved to Mt Isa where Joseph worked in the mines and through connections with the Open Brethren, he became a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, surprisingly, still totally unaware of his Jewishness.
The family eventually relocated back to Brisbane, where, sadly Josee succumbed to cancer in 1976. Some years later he met Donna Scarborough at another Open Brethren congregation and they were married in 1979.
It was at this point that Joseph Simon, the man who was unaware he was a Jew, began to experience pangs of the Holy Spirit to enter into Christian Ministry and developed a relationship with the Assemblies of God in Queensland.
Ultimately this led to Joseph and Donna heeding God's call to initiate a worker-pastor ministry at Glenden, a mining town, north west of Mackay, where they served for almost fourteen years and were then led back to Brisbane.
In 1999 Joseph travelled back to Belgium for a family wedding and to his great surprise he discovered not only that he was Jewish, but that he had European Jewish roots that were traceable to 1174. The Simon family had an association with the French aristocracy and seven Castles between Calais and Alsace Lorraine, all of which still exist.
He discovered that the Simon name was not only a well documented Jewish name, but that his family could trace the Simons in great detail over the past 1000 years and many of the Simons (extended family members) fell to the Jewish pogroms including the holocaust.
Upon Joseph's return to Australia he undertook a private study of his Jewish roots and what it meant to be a Jew and began looking at the Old Testament with very different glasses. This led him into a rich discovery of what it means to worship the Jew, Jesus Christ and feel part of the very history of the Salvation story.
He met Pastor Joshua Avia of the International Hosanna Church Network at a pastor's barbecue, and Joseph's gift for languages became apparent, when it was discovered he spoke fluent French. Pastor Avia had several French speaking peoples in his congregation.
One thing led to another, as it was then discovered Joseph Simon was a Messianic Jew and so Pastor Avia has sought Joseph Simon to establish a Saturday morning Sabbath Messianic Service. Pastor Avia knew his church would be blessed abundantly with a Jewish man as part of his ministry team.
The Lord has led Joseph Simon from escaping the Holocaust in Belgium (perhaps as an allegory for the baby Jesus escaping Herod's slaughter of infants; or Moses being hidden in the bulrushes to escape slaughter by Pharaoh), to Australia where he came into a personal relationship with the Jew, Jesus Christ, and then to become a Minister of the 'good news' of Jesus' Salvation.
His Christian pastor associates, acknowledging in great respect his deep family Jewish roots, refer to Joseph as 'Rabbi Simon' who only recently delighted in conducting his grandson's bar mitzvah.
His video interview of the Australian Missionary News IPTV can be viewed on either
tv.bushorchestra.com or www.safeworlds.net