Mother and Toddler Murdered in Auschwitz

July 7, 2022

Mother and Toddler Murdered in Auschwitz

Sometimes I come across photographs which are so vivid that they seem like they are not photos—but realistic. And then, knowing what the fate is of those in the picture, I feel like just giving them a hug and telling them everything will be fine.

I also know that couldn’t be further from the truth. The baby in the pictures is Margaretha Rebecca van Moppes. She would have celebrated her 82nd birthday today. However, the Nazis didn’t deem her to be a human being.

What I find even more disturbing is that little Margaretha looks like one of my grandnieces. In fact, she could be her sister. I realize that if the Holocaust had occurred decades later, it so easily could have been one of my children or family that would have been victims.

The other lady in the pictures is Seraphina Rebecca van Moppes-Wolf, Margaretha’s mother. These two ladies don’t only symbolize the murder of innocent lives but also the senseless destruction of beauty.

Margaretha and Seraphina were transported from Westerbork to Auschwitz on 3 September 1944. They were both murdered when they arrived on 6 September 1944. Margaretha was age 4, and her mother was age 29.