Tag Archives: Het Apeldoornsche Bosch

The Star

I came across an excerpt from the book Wiswassebeesjes by author Dieta Kalk. I can’t think of a proper translation for the word, but that doesn’t really matter.

In the book the writer, recalls the removal of the Wallage family from Aprikozenweg 21 in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands, a day after seeing the Star of David. The wearing of the Star of David had compulsory starting at the beginning of May 1942. It is almost certain that the Wallage family was temporarily interned on the grounds of the Apeldoornsche Bosch in mid-January 1943 and sent to the transit camp Westerbork and then on to Auschwitz.

This excerpt gives a good illustration of the perception of the treatment of Jews, as seen from the vantage point of a child.

The neighbours next to us (the Wallage family) have two children.
They have beautiful dark hair and brown eyes.
“They are Jews,” says Mom.
“What are Jews?” asks Dieta.
Mom doesn’t answer. She looks very serious.
One day Dieta sees that the children are wearing a star on their jackets.
And their father and mother too.
“I want a star like that too,” says Dieta.
“Mommy, can I also have a star on my jacket?”.
“Only Jewish people should wear a star on their coat,” says Mama.
“They don’t like that at all.”
Dieta doesn’t understand it.
The next day a truck comes onto the street.
The entire Wallage family climbs into the car.
Soldiers are there.
“Where are they going?” asks Jopie.
“They are going on a journey, but we don’t know where to.”
But no one looks happy, and Mom is crying.
“Is that because it’s war?” Dieta asks.
“Are they coming back?”
“Nobody knows,” says Mom.
The house is empty.
We never saw them again.

Levie Wallage started work as a qualified nurse at Apeldoornse Bos on 1 June 1925 to support his family. The piece mentions their two children. However, Levie Wallage and his wife Matthea Wallage-Halverstad, did have a third child. Renate Wallage was born 22 May 1943 in Westerbork.

This clearly indicates that the Nazis had no regard for the life of the Jews, born or yet to be born. They pushed a pregnant woman on a truck.

Matthea and her children were all murdered on 3 September 1943 at Auschwitz. Levie was murdered a few months later on 31 March 1944.

sources

https://www.gedenkstenen-apeldoorn.nl/nieuws/de-ster

https://www.joodsmonument.nl/nl/page/498376/levie-wallage-and-his-family

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The Forgotten Crime of Paedagogium Achisomog

Paedagogium Achisomog was an institution for Jewish children with intellectual disabilities. The institution was opened in 1925 and was a subsidiary of the Apeldoornsche Bosch. At Paedagogium Achisomog about 75 children lived in small groups. On the night of 21 to 22 January 1943, Paedagogium Achisomog was evacuated together with the Apeldoornsche Bosch.

On 10 September 1933, next to the Apeldoornsche Bosch, the first stone was laid for the children’s home Paedagogium Achisomog, which consisted of three small pavilions and a pavilion for deeply disturbed children.

‘Benjamin’. 24 children lived in each building. Each child was treated according to his character and disposition. By living together in groups, wanted to approach the atmosphere of a family as much as possible.
The girls’ pavilion was named Ephraim Manasseh, and the two boys’ pavilions were named Reuben Simeon and Naphtali Zebulun. The name Achisomog means ‘My brother for support’. The children who were admitted had an intellectual disability or were difficult to raise. Neglected children or children who were at risk of going astray could also be admitted for observation. Some of the students were taught at their school on the site.

On the night of January 21-22, 1943, all 1250 residents of the Apeldoornse Bosch and the paedagogium; patients and nursing staff, were deported to Auschwitz by the Germans. There they were all killed immediately upon arrival.

Herman van Brakel, a boy from Dordrecht with Down syndrome, had only recently been admitted to Achisomog, the children’s ward of the Jewish psychiatric institution Het Apeldoornsche Bos. Elsewhere in the complex on Zutphensestraat, his sister Coby worked as a nurse.

On the night of 21-22 January 1943, units of the Waffen-SS and the Ordnungspolizei completely unexpectedly drove all patients and fifty staff in trucks to Apeldoorn station to a wait for a freight train with forty wagons.

Coby van Brakel and dozens of other employees escaped just in time. She was forced to leave her 12-year-old brother Herman behind: she could not enter the Achisomog site and did not have a key. The train left at seven in the morning and went straight to Auschwitz, where they were gassed upon arrival.

Coby’s Account
“You just could feel it coming, now or never, and it was just in time. I pulled everything together it was winter, and it was cold. My brother was also in
the vicinity, who was at Achisomog I could reach him there. I didn’t have a key either. That simply wasn’t possible. He WAS there because my
mother couldn’t take him with her when she went into hiding.
I couldn’t take him either, it wasn’t possible. My mother understood.”

Hermanus Mozes van Brakel was born in Dordrecht on 5 October 1930. He was murdered in Auschwitz on 25 January 1943. He reached the age of 12 years.

sources

https://www.joodsmonument.nl/en/page/122037/hermanus-mozes-van-brakel

https://www.stolpersteine-dordrecht.nl/het_voorbije_joodse_dordrecht_herman_van_brakel.html

https://www.oorlogsbronnen.nl/thema/Paedagogium%20Achisomog

https://www.geheugenvanapeldoorn.nl/bijzondere-plaatsen/oost-en-welgelegen/paedagogium-achisomog/pointofinterest/detail

Click to access 5e218bfa1812fc4f4a591e12_Panelenroute%20%27s%20Heeren%20Loo%20-%20Groot%20Schuylenburg.pdf

The Sad Story of Betje Weijl-van Praag and her Daughter

On 16 November 1941, Betje Weijl-van Praag died from what appears to be suicide. The police report does not mention suicide, but the circumstances indicate that probably was what happened.

“Notification is given by telephone that something has probably happened to the resident of plot Schuttersweg 88 because she has not been seen all day. She lives alone. Police officer Van Rave goes to the scene and a little later announces by telephone that he has gained access to the house by breaking a window. A coal vapour smell was observed by him. The resident was found dead in bed by him so she probably died of coal fume poisoning. Dr Hermanides stated, who will perform the autopsy.”

Later two more officers went to the scene. Two and a half hours later it is noted: “Dr Hermanides had already performed the autopsy. An amount of money, amounting to NLG 40.82, as well as distribution documents were taken by the rapporteur. The stove in the house was still smouldering, while the stove pipe was completely blocked. The house is locked and the key has been taken by detective Wolvenne. According to found papers, the deceased would have relatives in Amsterdam. The Amsterdam police will try to warn them. Dr Lobstein van het Apeldoornsche Bosch later informs him that it is known to him (a daughter of Mrs Van Praag) is being nursed in the Apeldoornsche Bosch) that family (sister) lives in Amsterdam, Oudezijde Achterburgwal 111.”

The report mentions Betje Weijl-van Praag’s daughter. Sophia Charlotte Weijl was born on 14 April 1915. She was a patient at Het Apeldoornsche Bosch, a Jewish psychiatric hospital in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands.

I am not sure when she was admitted to the hospital. However her father, Salomo Weijl died on 28 February 1923. Sophia was still nine at the time. Her mother, Betje Weijl-van Praag became a widow and perhaps she wasn’t able to look after her daughter on her own.

Sophia Charlotte Weijl was in Het Apeldoornsche Bos when it was raided on the night of 21/22 January 1943. She was put on transport on 22 January 1943 to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where she was murdered on 24 January 1943.

Both women were victims of the Nazi regime.

sources

https://www.joodsmonument.nl/nl/page/152937/betje-weijl-van-praag

https://www.joodsmonument.nl/nl/page/660803/sophia-charlotte-weijl

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My Interview with Joosje Asser—The Story About her Parents and their Survival

During the night of 21 to 22 January 1943, the Nazis raided Het Apeldoornsche Bosch, a Jewish psychiatric hospital in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands. Nearly 1300 people are deported to Auschwitz.

All 1181 patients, sometimes naked, confused or in straitjackets, were forced by units of the SS and the Ordnungspolizei under the personal supervision of Hauptsturmführer Ferdinand aus der Fünten of the Zentralstelle für jüdische Auswanderung (assisted by Albert Konrad Gemmeker, the SS commander of Camp Westerbork ) in trucks to the waiting freight train. In the days that followed, another 293 people, mainly personnel, were taken away. Most of them do not survive the war.

Eli Asser and Eefje Croisset, Joosje’s parents, who worked in the Hospital managed to escape. In the interview, Joosje talks about her parents, and the book her father wrote about the time.

There are a few small interruptions during the interview, I had considered cleaning them up, but then I realised the symbolic value of it. So many family lives were disrupted during the Holocaust. I decided to leave the interview as it was, unedited.

sources

https://www.bol.com/nl/nl/s/?searchtext=Ontsnapt+uit+het+Apeldoornsche+Bosch&Referrer=ADVNLPPcef10d00d10bf4f6009f76fb68000059740&utm_source=59740&utm_medium=Affiliates&utm_campaign=CPS&utm_content=txl
https://www.joodsamsterdam.nl/eli-asser/

https://www.apeldoornschebosch.nl/en/history

https://www.apeldoornschebosch.nl/

Grietje Lea Philippus Cohen-van Bergen

Grietje Lea Philippus Cohen-van Bergen such a long name.

Although there is quite a lot of data about her , there is still very little known about her.

Born in Weesp, the Netherlands on 9 September 1884.

Daughter of Philippus Hartog van Bergen en Maria Levie de Vries‏.

Married to Salli Cohen‏‎ , son of Mozes Cohen en Reintje Rubens‏.

Married on 1 November 1906

Witnesses to the marriage ; Barend Cohen, 31 , trader , brother of the groom.

Hartog Philippus van Bergen,33 ,trader and Asser Philippus van Bergen,24, traveler . Brothers of the bride.

Gabriel Levie de Vries, 53, uncle of the bride.

Children

Mozes Cohen;Barend Cohen;Maria Cohen;Philip Cohen;Hartog Cohen‏‎ and Levie Cohen.

We also know that Grietje was treated at “Het Apeldoornsche Bosch” which was a Jewish psychiatric hospital in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands.

We know this because on June 1943 the assistant secretary of the hospital wrote a letter to Hartog Cohen, one of Grietje’s sons, confirming that his mother who had been in treatment at the hospital since 23 December 1924, had been put on transport on January 21,1943 to an unknown destination. She had been put on transport because the Hospital was cleared out.

All 1200 patients and 50 staff were transported to Auschwitz that day.

The last thing we know about Grietje is that she was murdered in Auschwitz on February 16,1943 aged 58.

Her son Hartog survived the war, her daughter Maria died a year after birth. The other 4 children all were murdered in Auschwitz and Sobibor. Her son Levie comitted suicide on September 30,1942.

Her Husband Salli, survived and died February 18,1975 aged 92.

Grietje Lea Philippus Cohen-van Bergen such a long name and yet such a short life.

Donation

I am passionate about my site and I know a you all like reading my blogs. I have been doing this at no cost and will continue to do so. All I ask is for a voluntary donation of $2 ,however if you are not in a position to do so I can fully understand, maybe next time then. Thanks To donate click on the credit/debit card icon of the card you will use. If you want to donate more then $2 just add a higher number in the box left from the paypal link. Many thanks

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Sources

https://www.joodsmonument.nl/nl/page/218097/grietje-lea-philippus-cohen-van-bergen

http://www.maxvandam.info/humo-gen/family.php?id=F7325&main_person=I19616