Van der Klein

My last name is a bit of a mystery. A distant cousin started a family tree several years ago and at some stage he got stuck, because our family name seems to have appeared out of nowhere. He could trace it back to somewhere in the late 19th century. There are plenty of Klein’s but ‘de Klein’ appears to be rare.

This made me wonder if perhaps my name is really ‘Klein’ and that it was changed throughout the decades to de Klein. It also made me wonder that maybe my origins are Jewish, Klein being a predominantly Jewish name.

I decided to see if I could find a mention of the name “de Klein” in the Dutch Jewish database ‘Joods Monument’. There was no reference of my family name. However there were 18 pages referring to the name Klein.

I also came across the name ‘van der Klein’ the only other name with a prefix before Klein.

It also broke my heart to find out that, that whole family was murdered in 1942.

The father Levie van der Klein was murdered in Auschwitz on 19 October 1942,aged 75. His wife had already passed away in 1934.

Son , Elkan van der Klein was murdered in Auschwitz on 13 November 1942.

Son, Isaac van der Klein was murdered in Auschwitz on 30 September 1942.

Son, Morrits van der Klein was murdered in Auschwitz on 30 September 1942.

Son, Jacob van der Klein was murdered in Auschwitz on 30 September 1942

Daughter , Mietje van der Klein was murdered in Auschwitz on 30 September 1942.

Daughter , Saartje Mug- van der Klein was murdered in Auschwitz on 30 September 1942.

What is even more tragic is that the father Levie had to find out that 5 of his 6 children were murdered in the same camp he was in. His oldest son was murdered a few weeks later.

So many families were wiped out and it is scary to know that it easily could have been all of my family too.

source

https://www.joodsmonument.nl/en/page/222224/levie-van-der-klein