History of Sorts

Crimes committed during the Holocaust were not exclusively the actions of Germans. In ALL occupied territory, there were local citizens who willingly participated in the atrocities. While some governments, , have made efforts to confront this dark history, others, particularly in Eastern Europe, have attempted to whitewash these crimes. Why I begin with this will become clear later in this blog.

During the occupation, 189 Dutch-Jewish doctors and 59 Jewish medical students died. Their names can be found on the Holocaust Names Memorial. They are the Jews ‘who were persecuted and deported from the Netherlands, as well as deported Dutch Jews living in other countries, who were murdered in Nazi concentration and extermination camps, as well as those who perished from hunger or exhaustion during transports and death marches, and whose graves are unknown.

Levie Kwitser was one of those Jewish doctors who died while in hiding. He was a retired general practitioner when he, together with his wife, experienced the increasingly grim attitude of the occupier towards Jewish citizens. After the ‘violent death’ (1941) of his wife, Levie went into hiding, first with a local acquaintance and, in 1943, in The Hague, his wife’s birthplace. There, he passed away on January 17, 1945.

The title “Died in Exile” may not be entirely accurate, but it reflects how Levie Kwitser’s family described his passing in a local newspaper announcement. To honor their wording, I have retained the title. Levie Kwitser tragically died in hiding on January 17, 1945—just weeks before liberation.

Levie Kwitser was born in Amsterdam on July 8, 1866, and passed away in The Hague on January 17, 1945, at the age of 78.

Kwitser studied medicine at the University of Amsterdam from 1883 to 1893, successfully passing his medical examination on July 20, 1894. He married Estella Josephina Levie in The Hague on June 16, 1899.

Initially, Kwitser worked as a general practitioner in Diepenheim. During the war, he went into hiding to avoid persecution. However, his wife, Estella Josephina Levie, born in Groningen on October 31, 1873, was the victim of a crime. On July 27, 1941, Estella was murdered by a group of fascists from Enschede. Among those responsible was Gerrit Jan Willem Libbers, a local NSB (Dutch National Socialist Movement) member who owned a shop on Spoorstraat in Goor.

Both Levie Kwitser and Estella were buried in the General Cemetery in Goor.

It is worth noting that June 11, 1941, marked the first raid in Amsterdam, adding context to the escalating violence against Jewish people in the Netherlands during this period.

Sources

https://www.joodsmonument.nl/en/page/445466/levie-kwitser

https://stolpersteine-goor.nl/slachtoffers/estella-kwitser-levie

https://knmg.maglr.com/joodse-artsen-en-de-holocaust/joodse-artsen-en-de-holocaust

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