Westerbork
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I wish I could tell you a long story about the Rooselaar family, but I can’t. I will, however, convey what is known because it is a chilling tale of evil and destruction. The Rooselaar family lived in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. They were moved or rather deported to Westerbork at some stage. I know this…
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I always try to keep my emotions out of it when I write about the Holocaust, but I often fail. How could I not get emotional when I see a picture of a baby who was murdered. Donald was born in Amsterdam, on 30 March 1941 .He was murdered in Sobibor, on 11 June 1943.,…
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Meir Levison was born in Westerbork on 19 November 1943.He was murdered in Bergen-Belsen on 21 March 1945. He was 1 year old when he was murdered. There are no pictures of Meir. The opportunity for his proud parents to take pictures was taken away from them. Because Meir was born in captivity. About 5…
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In the past I have been very critical of my fellow Dutch men and women, in relation to the role they played during World War 2. While most opposed the Nazi occupation, they did very little to resist. Of course it is very easy to be critical looking back. In all honesty if I would…
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Sonja would have been 80 today. But as the title suggests she was murdered when she was only 5 months old. She was the product of love between two people. Her parents were, Mother, Frederika van Amerongen-Veffer and her Father, Philip van Amerongen. Sonja’s Mother was a seamstress and her Father a butcher. Just regular…
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Sophie is the girl on the left in the above picture. Today would have been her 90th birthday. She was born on 16 March 1932 in Amersfoort. She was transferred via Kamp Vught to Camp Westerbork on 23 May 1943. There were 1172 people on that transport. 1171 Jewish Dutch citizens and one other, possibly…
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Although Westerbork wasn’t an extermination camp but transit camp, it didn’t mean that no one was murdered there. It is often referred to as a ‘humane’ camp, but there was nothing humane about it. Only 751 people were murdered there, now some will say that some died and were not murdered, but I don’t subscribe…
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I know that looking back on history with a retrospective view always comes with a 20/20 vision, nevertheless it is important to understand that it was widely know what was happening to the Jewish population in Europe throughout World War 2. Too often I have heard the argument that no one knew until after the…
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In 1943, 19 trains left Westerbork for Sobibor. Over 34.000 men, women, and children from The Netherlands made this journey. Not knowing where they would go, thinking they would be resettled. Most of these people were all murdered within a five months of arriving in Sobibor. Only 18 people out of all these Dutch transports…
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I was going to write about a young boy called Jonas van Oosten. He was murdered in Auschwitz on January 16,1943, aged 16. When he was two years of age he won a kite competition. The kite was much bigger then himself. He proudly posed with his kite for a photograph, in front of a…
History of Sorts 