Tag Archives: Mechelen

The Murder of 5 month old Sonja van Amerongen in Auschwitz

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 people, not a threat to anyone.

Sonja must have been conceived in June 1941, the Netherlands was already occupied for more then a year at that stage. This might sound like an odd thought, but the Dutch Jewish community were already living in anxiety at that time. so even having sex wasn’t as normal as it was before, Every aspect of their lives was impacted by the Nazi occupation.

Clearly Sonja’s parents loved each other and Sonja was a declaration of that love. She was born in Amsterdam just like her parents. Her birth date was March 18,1942.

All 3 were murdered in Auschwitz on August 28 1942.Philip was first put on a transport to Mechelen in Belgium, on August 25,1942.He must have been transport immediately from there to Auschwitz.

Both Sonja and her Mother’s name are on the same transport list. It appears to me they were sent to Auschwitz from Westerbork.

I noticed another name on that list, Golda Barber-Lewinson, I noticed it because it links to the current war raging in Europe. Golda was born in Odessa which is now in the Ukraine. That is all what I will say about that.

Golda, her husband and their 7 month son were also murdered in Auschwitz, Golda was murdered a day before Sonja and her family. Golda’s son Alfred was murdered on the same day as Sonja.

Golda’s husband, Salomon, was murdered a few days later.

sources

https://www.joodsmonument.nl/nl/page/166277/sonja-van-amerongen

https://www.joodsmonument.nl/nl/page/213582/golda-barber-lewinson

Cello with one string.

mESQUITO

Among all the horror stories from the Holocaust, every once in a while a positive story pops up. .

I actually got side tracked,I was researching the WWII years of Dutch entertainer, Rudi Carrell, when the name of Abraham Bueno de Mesquita came up. He was better known as  Bueno de Mesquita and he had worked together with Rudi Carrell in Germany in the 60s and 70s.

Most Dutch people of my age and older would have known  Bueno de Mesquita as a comedian and entertainer. He performed in many variety shows with Dutch artists like Rita Corita and the comedic duo the Mounties and the aforementioned Rudi Carrell.

What most people will not know is that Bueno de Mesquita’s talents more then likely saved his life.

During  World War II,  Bueno de Mesquita who was a Dutch Sephardi Jew had been  imprisoned in the Dossin Barracks in Mechelen, Belgium.Also known as SS-Sammellager Mecheln, which was a was a detention and deportation camp.

Mechelen

Bueno de Mesquita was scheduled to be deported to Auschwitz. But as fate would have it the camp commander was looking for musicians and artists . Bueno was selected because of  ability to even play a one string cello , that together  with his  comic  talents saved him from deportation and more then likely his life.

He went on to become a successful entertainer and was one of the first TV stars on Dutch television, already in 1952 he made his first appearance on TV.

In some of the sketches he would play a waiter very much based on the character Manuel from Fawlty Towers,and was played by Andrew Sachs. Bueno and Andrew did look like each other.

He was born on July 23,1918 in Amsterdam and he died in the night of August 18/19, 2005, in his hometown of Lelystad, aged 87, after a long illness with lung cancer and a brain tumor.

He wrote an autobiography titled Cello met één snaar (Cello with one string).

sources

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0119215/

https://web.archive.org/web/20051105190240/http://www.volkskrant.nl/kunst/1124427851084.html

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Mechelen transit camp-The logistics.

Mechelen-SS-Sammellager_-_Dossin_Casern

I know the title may seem a bit disrespectful but it is not meant that way, it was the only way I felt I could describe it.

In the summer of 1942, the Nazis made preparations to deport the Jews of Belgium. They converted the Dossin de St. Georges military barracks in the city of Mechelen (Fr., Malines) into a transit camp. Mechelen, a city of 60,000, was considered an ideal location for this purpose. Located halfway between Antwerp and Brussels, two cities which contained most of the Jewish population of Belgium, the city had good rail connections to the east.

800px-Breendonk071

At the start of the war, the population of Belgium was overwhelmingly Catholic. Jews made up the largest non-Christian population in the country, numbering between 70–75,000 out of a population of 8 million. Most lived in the cities of Antwerp, Brussels, Charleroi and Liège. The vast majority were recent immigrants to Belgium who had fled persecution in Germany and Eastern Europe, and, as a result, only a small minority actually possessed Belgian citizenship.

Shortly after the invasion of Belgium, the Military Government passed a series of anti-Jewish laws in October 1940. The Belgian Committee of Secretary-Generals refused from the start to co-operate on passing any anti-Jewish measures and the Military Government seemed unwilling to pass further legislation. The German government began to seize Jewish-owned businesses and forced Jews out of positions in the civil service.

Proclamation_about_Jews_in_German-occupied_Belgium

The first group of Jews arrived in the camp Mechelen from Antwerp on July 27, 1942. Between August and December 1942, two transports with about 1,000 Jews each left the camp every week for Auschwitz-Birkenau. Between August 4, 1942, and July 31, 1944, a total of 28 trains carrying 25,000+ Jews left Mechelen for Poland; most of them went to Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Below is a breakdown of the transports, the logistical numbers.I usually don’t like the statistics but if you see the numbers from a relatively unknown and small deportation centre it is just staggering.

Transports from Mechelen to Auschwitz-Birkenau
Deported people per age (above and below 15 years old) and gender. All were Jewish people, with the exception of Transport Z in 1943.

Transports Date Men Boys Women Girls Total
Transport 1 4 August 1942 544 28 403 23 998
Transport 2 11 August 1942 459 25 489 26 999
Transport 3 15 June 1942 380 48 522 50 1000
Transport 4 18 August 1942 339 133 415 112 999
Transport 5 25 August 1942 397 88 429 81 995
Transport 6 29 August 1942 355 60 531 54 1000
Transport 7 1 September 1942 282 163 401 154 1000
Transport 8 10 September 1942 388 111 403 98 1000
Transport 9 12 September 1942 408 91 401 100 1000
Transport 10 15 September 1942 405 132 414 97 1048
Transport 11 26 September 1942 562 231 713 236 1742
Transport 12 10 October 1942 310 135 423 131 999
Transport 13 10 October 1942 228 89 259 99 675
Transport 14 24 October 1942 324 112 438 121 995
Transport 15 24 October 1942 314 30 93 39 476
Transport 16 31 October 1942 686 16 94 27 823
Transport 17 31 October 1942 629 45 169 32 875
Transport 18 15 January 1943 353 105 424 65 947
Transport 19 15 January 1943 239 51 270 52 612
Transport 20 19 April 1943 463 115 699 127 1404
Transport 21 31 July 1943 672 103 707 71 1553
Transport 22a 20 September 1943 291 39 265 36 631
Transport 22b 20 September 1943 305 74 351 64 794
Transport 23 15 January 1944 307 33 293 22 655
Transport Z 15 January 1944 85 91 101 74 351
transport 24 4 April 1944 303 29 275 18 625
transport 25 19 May 1944 237 20 230 21 508
transport 26 31 July 1944 280 15 251 17 563
Total August 1942 – July 1944 10,545 2,212 10,463 2,047 25,267

Transport Z was designated for Roma

Of the 25.267 deported only 1240 survived

Statue_20th_convoy

Donation

I am passionate about my site and I know 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. Thank you. 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

United States Holocaust Museum

Wikipedia Belgium