History of Sorts

The photograph above might appear strange for a Holocaust story, but I posted it for a good reason. It is a chemical plant called DSM. At the edge on the top of the photo, you can see a few apartment blocks where I grew up, in the town of Geleen in the Netherlands.

The DSM was a daily reality for me. When I looked at it again today, I realized that there were several fellow-Geleen citizens that would have loved it if that chemical plant, ugly as it was, had been their daily reality. They never saw it because they were murdered. Below is a small poem I wrote for them a few years ago and the names of those murdered.

You are not different from me.

You eat the same food.

You read the same books.

But yet you are not free.

You are not free because of someone’s idea of you.

You are given a yellow star.

You are catalogued and numbered like cattle.

But yet you’re not an animal but a human too.

You are being killed in the vilest of ways.

You are a man, a woman, a child, a parent.

You are erased as if you were never here.

But yet you are remembered on many days.

You are not different to me but you are also not the same.

You are merely a number and a name on a list.

You are not listened to for you have no voice

But I pledge I will shout for you in loud acclaim.

	Last name	First name	Born	Died*
1	Freimark-Adler	Hermine	12-12-1876 Urspringen (D)	14-05-1943 Sobibor
2	Baum	Max	04-01-1907 Bauchem (D)	31-03-1944 Auschwitz
3	Cohen-Ten Brink	Esthella Carolina	05-06-1904 Ootmarsum	31-08-1942 Auschwitz
4	Meyer-Cahn	Jeanette (Jetta)	18-12-1859 Leutesdorf (D)	10-05-1943 Westerbork
5	Claessens	Albert	19-04-1905 Obbicht	30-04-1943 Midden-Europa
6	Cohen	Frieda	11-07-1924 Vaals	31-08-1942 Auschwitz
7	Cohen	Henny	30-10-1925 Vaals	26-09-1942 Auschwitz
8	Cohen	Josephine	09-07-1930 Geleen	31-08-1942 Auschwitz
9	Cohen	Simon	01-05-1889 Midwolda	31-08-1942 Auschwitz
10	Freimark	Ernst	12-08-1936 Frankfurt (D)	31-08-1942 Auschwitz
11	Freimark	Friedrich	27-10-1902 Marktheidenfeld (D)	30-04-1943 Midden-Europa
12	Freimark	Kurt	21-12-1939 Heerlen	31-08-1942 Auschwitz
13	Levy-Goldschmidt	Irene	15-02-1907 Rheda (D)	30-11-1943 Auschwitz
14	Goldschmidt	Josef	24-10-1867 Rheda (D)	28-05-1943 Sobibor
15	Goldsteen	Frederik	09-07-1918 Rheydt (D)	15-08-1942 Auschwitz
16	Levi-Harf	Rosalie	27-10-1880 Mönchengladbach (D)	28-05-1943 Sobibor
17	Goldschmidt-Jacob	Frieda	19-02-1869 Rheda-Wiedenbrück (D)	07-10-1943 Maastricht**
18	May-Jacobsohn	Klara	14-05-1871 Neckarbischofsheim (D)	14-05-1943 Sobibor
19	Meyer-Kaufmann	Berta	03-01-1912 Köln (D)	31-08-1942 Auschwitz
20	Kaufmann	Margard	10-11-1928 Gronau (D)	03-09-1943 Auschwitz
21	Kaufmann	Richard	30-06-1886 Moers (D)	03-09-1943 Auschwitz
22	Heimberg-Klestadt	Bertha	28-12-1891 Büren (D)	25-01-1943 Auschwitz***
23	Claessens-Krzanowska	Ajga	17-03-1909 Zawiercie (Polen)	31-08-1942 Auschwitz
24	Lebenstein	Ida	16-05-1888 Ochtrup (D)	28-05-1943 Sobibor
25	Levy	Arnold	27-05-1880 Wuppertal-Elberfeld (D)	28-05-1943 Sobibor
26	Levy	Hans Erich	22-03-1911 Düsseldorf (D)	31-03-1944 Polen
27	Löwenfels	Luise	05-07-1915 Trabelsdorf (D)	30-09-1942 Auschwitz
28	Freimark-May	Gertruda	16-02-1902 Niedermendig (D)	31-08-1942 Auschwitz
29	Winter-May	Irma Johanna	30-08-1908 Niedermendig (D)	31-08-1942 Auschwitz
30	Goldsteen-Mendel	Carolina	06-07-1880 Tetz (D)	22-10-1943 Auschwitz****
31	Meyer	Max	23-01-1900 Remagen-Oberwinter (D)	30-04-1943 Midden-Europa
32	Roer	Helene	14-09-1921 Zülpich (D)	31-08-1942 Auschwitz
33	Roer	Ilse	20-02-1925 Zülpich (D)	31-08-1942 Auschwitz
34	Baum-Salmagne	Sophia	12-06-1867 Eilendorf (D)	16-11-1943 Bergen-Belzen
35	Willner	Paul Siegfried	05-06-1902 Aachen (D)	30-04-1943 Midden-Europa
36	Winter	Gustav	01-11-1897 Korschenbroich (D)	30-04-1943 Midden-Europa
37	Kaufmann-Zilversmit	Adele	07-12-1890 Gronau (D)	03-09-1943 Auschwitz