History of Sorts

On 3 September 1944, Anne Frank and the seven others living in hiding at the Secret Annex were put on the last transport to Auschwitz, along with over a thousand other Jewish prisoners. One of the cruellest jokes (for lack of a better word) the Nazis played was to pretend these journeys were return trips

However, that transport was the last transport from Westerbork to Auschwitz. Anne Frank, her family, and friends weren’t the only ones on that transport. There were another 780 or so people on that train. I will not go into all of their stories. I will pick just a few of them—children like Anne Frank.

Louis Emanuel Levin was born in The Hague on 29 March 1929. He was murdered at Bergen-Belsen on 31 May 1945. He was 16 years old at the time of death.

Alexander van Leeuwen was from Tilburg and born on 12 April 1929. He died near Auschwitz on 15 March 1945, only a few weeks after the liberation.

Duifje Gans was born in Amsterdam on 13 June 1933. She was murdered at Auschwitz on 6 September 1944. She had reached the age of 11.

Duifje Gans was a daughter of Aron Gans and Rijntje van Gelderen. Her mother Rijntje van Gelderen died on 3 January 1939 in Amsterdam. Her father remarried Josephina Loyen a year later.

In September 1943, Duifje Gans was brought to Limburg in the Southern part of the Netherlands. Going into hiding, they were taken in by a family on the Stationsweg in Venray. On the night of 16–17 August 1944, three police officers from Eindhoven raided the home of the Loogman sisters in Venray and arrested ten-year-old Duifje Gans. The child cried terribly because, despite her young age, she knew very well what this arrest meant. Duifje went via the police station in Eindhoven, to Vught, and onto Westerbork.

Sjelomo Hamburger was born in Amersfoort on 22 January 1942. He was murdered at Auschwitz on 6 September 1944. He was two years old.

Sjelomo Hamburger was the son of Samuel Hamburger (a son of Salomon Hamburger and Jessie Hamburger-Hamburger from Amersfoort) and Marianne van Straten (a daughter of Louis van Straten en Minna Hes from Deil). Samuel and Marianne (aka Jenny) lived at Fahrenheitstraat 4 in Amersfoort. They were married on 25 August 1939 in Amersfoort, and their son Sjelomo was born there on 22 January 1942.

After the birth of their son, Samuel and Marianne decided to go into hiding with Sjelomo, to escape the persecution by the Nazis. However, on 8 June 1944, two-year-old Sjelomo was discovered by an Amersfoort policeman during a search for prohibited motion pictures in an attic room on the Schimmelpenninckstraat in Amersfoort. Sjelomo Hamburger had been hiding there since August 1942.

What happened to him afterwards is unknown. After his arrest at some point, he was transported to Westerbork, where he was deported with the last transport from Westerbork to Auschwitz on 3 September 1944. On arrival there, 6 September 1944, Sjelomo Hamburger was immediately murdered. His parents, Samuel and Marianne Hamburger survived the Holocaust by hiding.

Ursula Gerson was born in Münster, Germany, on 18 June 1936. She was murdered in Auschwitz on 6 September 1944. She was eight years old. She was the daughter of Ernst Gerson and Julia Gerson-Lippers.

Ernst Gerson’s and his family became victims of increasing aggression, intimidation and violence in the 1930s. Ernst was arrested and imprisoned several times on unclear suspicions.

During the Kristallnacht of 9–10 November 1938, the home of Ernst’s parents became the target of anti-Jewish aggression and violence. At that time, the decision to go to the Netherlands was made in mid-May 1938 to go to his wife’s sister, Bertha in Zwolle. As a result, the German government took away his German citizenship.

He was followed in June 1939 by his wife Sara Julia, daughter Ursula, his parents-in-law, the Lippers and Uncle Hugo. They went to the same Bertha, married to a Jewish Dutchman, Siegfried de Groot, from Zwolle.

The Gerson family then moved to Hattem at the end of 1939. At the time, Ursula attended the public primary school at Dorpsweg in Hattem.

In 1939, the same brother-in-law from Zwolle, Siegfried de Groot, started building a villa at 1 van Heemstralaan in Hattem. Due to the outbreak of the war, the first stone was not laid until January 1941 by both the children of Siegfried and Bertha. However, construction progressed slowly.

The Gerson family then found shelter with the Berends family near the Molecaten estate.

In September 1942, they were given another shelter on the Molecaten estate of Baron W. van Heeckeren van Molecaten. Several Jews were hiding in different places on this estate.

Ernst’s parents-in-law, Isidor and Martha Lippers-Stehberg and Uncle Hugo also found a hiding place in this shelter.

In the general police magazine of 17 September 1942, the mayor of Hattem already appealed for the arrest, detention, and arraignment of the Gerson family. It was reported that they had left their homes without the required permits.

Once again on February 25, 1943, the arrest of all members of the Gerson family and the in-laws was requested.

At the beginning of September 1944, the Gerson family and the 14-year-old Jewish boy Georg Cohn, who was also in hiding with them, were transported to Auschwitz after being betrayed via Westerbork on 3 September.

Sara Julia Gerson-Lippers, daughter Ursula, sister Bertha, brother-in-law Siegfried and their children, her parents, Uncle Hugo and Georg Cohn, did not survive the war.

The parents of Ernst and his brother did not survive the war in Germany and were murdered in the death camps.

Ernst Gerson miraculously survived the war after several concentration camps and returned to Hattem. After the war, he started again in the textile trade.

Annie Koekoek was born in Amsterdam on 5 December 1935. She was murdered at Auschwitz on 6 September 1944 at eight years of age.

Annie Koekoek and Mary Winnik hid in Velden, a hamlet near Venlo. They were picked up on Tuesday, 4 July 1944 by order of the Chief Warden from the addresses Vilgert 247 and 267. They were held in a Venlo police cell from 4 July, 5:30 p.m. to Thursday, 13 July, 5:15 a.m. They were then taken to Westerbork with Otto Sternheim (68 years old) from Arcen and the spouses Siegmund Moses (57 years old) and Regina David (64 years old) from Venlo. Annie Koekoek, along with the others, was taken from Westerbork to Auschwitz on Sunday, 3 September 1944—the last transport.

Mary Winnik was born in Amsterdam on 22 August 1937. She was murdered in Auschwitz on 6 September 1944. Reached the age of seven years.

The Winnik family, with the exception of the father, were arrested on 26 May 1943, and taken to Camp Westerbork. They returned to Amsterdam on 17 July. Father Winnik was arrested on 13 August 1943, and transported from Westerbork to Auschwitz on September 21, where he would die in January 1945. His wife, son Appie and daughter Mary had already been taken to hiding places. Under her own name but with a date and place of birth on 1 August 1938 in Rotterdam, Mary was placed with the Heuvelmans family in the Velden hamlet of De Vilgert. There, she was arrested on 4 July 1944, possibly after betrayal, and taken to Auschwitz via Westerbork.

Sources

https://www.joodsmonument.nl/en/page/213235/duifje-gans

https://www.joodsmonument.nl/en/page/523482/about-sjelomo-hamburger

https://www.joodsmonument.nl/en/page/34613/ursula-gerson

https://www.joodsmonument.nl/nl/page/510769/about-annie-koekoek

https://www.joodsmonument.nl/en/page/186786/mary-winnik

https://oorlogsgravenstichting.nl/personen/172062/mary-winnik

https://www.oorlogsbronnen.nl/mensen?transport_from=https%3A%2F%2Fdata.niod.nl%2FWO2_Thesaurus%2Fkampen%2F4869&transport_to=https%3A%2F%2Fdata.niod.nl%2FWO2_Thesaurus%2Fkampen%2F3653&transport_date=1944-9-3&page=1&tab=

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