Tag Archives: Murder of Children

Born in Westerbork

I have 3 children and I witnessed the birth of all 3 of them. The birth of a child must be the greatest miracle, Sure the sex beforehand is wonderful, but just imagine it, a sperm cell from a fertile man swims up through the vagina and into the uterus of a woman and joins with the woman’s egg cell as it travels down one of the fallopian tubes from the ovary to the uterus.

This is when the baby is conceived. There is no better moment in a parent’s live to see that first glimpse of the tiny human being, a product of a sexual act and love of 2 people. Seeing their baby for the first time and the feeling that goes with is something which is impossible to describe. The only word that gets close is a miracle.

But what if that baby is born in captivity and you are not sure how long the child will live, or indeed how long you will live, how does that feel? It is something no one wants to experience, yet it was a reality for many people.

The picture above is of Marie Majerowicz she was born in Camp Westerbork.

Camp Westerbork was a concentration and transit camp in Drenthe province, north east of the Netherlands.Established by the Dutch government in the summer of 1939, Camp Westerbork was meant to serve as a refugee camp for Germans and Austrians (German and Austrian Jews in particular), who had fled to the Netherlands to escape Nazi persecution.

But after the Nazis occupied the Netherlands ,the camp was repurposed and was utilized as a staging ground for the deportation of Jews, from 1942 to 1945. Only one-half square kilometer (119 acres) in area, the camp was not built for the purpose of industrial murder as were Nazi extermination camps. Westerbork was considered by Nazi standards as “humane”. Jewish inmates with families were housed in 200 interconnected cottages that contained two rooms, a toilet, a hot plate for cooking, and a small yard. Single inmates were placed in oblong barracks which contained a bathroom for each sex.

Marie Majerowicz was born in camp Westerbork on December 30,1942. In September 1944 she was deported to Theresienstadt from where, on 6 October 1944, she was deported to Auschwitz. She was murdered in a gas chamber after selection. She was not even 2 yet.

Marie wasn’t the only child born in Westerbork. Most of the children died or were murdered when they were still babies. Some only lived for a few days.

Abraham Moritz Benjamins, born February 21,1943. Murdered in Auschwitz October 8,1943.

Tine Bloemendaal, born April 30 1943. Died in Westerbork June 5,1943.

Emanuel Snatager. born May 9,1942. Died in Westerbork May 26,1943.

Karin Walg,born June 19, 1943. Died in Westerbork, June 23,1943.

Bernard Gosschalk, born December 21,1942. Murdered in Auschwitz October 26,1943.

Benjamin Vleeschhouwer, born August 10,1943. Died in Westerbork October 26,1943.

These were just a few. There are so many and to be honest I don’t think I can go through all of their details, my heart just can’t take it.

Aside from the human cost and the sheer evil and horror of it. So much potential talent has been lost. Who know, the scientist who discovered a cure for all cancers could be one of these children. We will never know just because of the warped ideology of Nazism.

sources

https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1066255

https://www.joodsmonument.nl/nl/search?mode=cards&qs=#eyJjYXRlZ29yeSI6W10sImNvbnRlbnRHcm91cHMiOltdLCJwYWdlIjoxLCJzb3J0aW5nIjoiIiwiYWR2YW5jZWRmaWx0ZXJzIjp7InN1ck5hbWUiOm51bGwsImZpcnN0TmFtZSI6bnVsbCwiYmlydGhDaXR5IjoiV2VzdGVyYm9yayIsImRlYXRoQ2l0eSI6bnVsbCwicmVzaWRlbmNlQ2l0eSI6bnVsbCwicmVzaWRlbmNlU3RyZWV0IjpudWxsLCJvY2N1cGF0aW9uIjpudWxsLCJiaXJ0aFllYXIiOm51bGwsImJpcnRoTW9udGgiOm51bGwsImJpcnRoRGF5IjpudWxsLCJkZWF0aFllYXIiOm51bGwsImRlYXRoTW9udGgiOm51bGwsImRlYXRoRGF5IjpudWxsLCJkZWNlYXNlQWdlIjpudWxsfX0=

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Happy Birthday Willem Belinfante.

Happy Birthday Willem Belinfante. You would have been 87 today. You were born on May 30 1934. in Amsterdam.

Your parents were Esther Pais Belinfante, your mother, and Wolf Belinfante, your Father. Both born in Amsterdam. Your Father was a butcher, nowadays in this Covid 19 era he would have been considered an essential worker. But he must have always been an essential worker. He made sure that people had meat for their dinners. And don’t we all need to eat?

The picture is a wedding picture of your parents. It looks like a normal wedding party. However most of the people on this picture would have been murdered just a few years later. You parents were murdered in Sobibor on July 2,1943.

Dear Willem you had 2 brothers, one whose name I don’t know, and a younger brother called Herman Isaac Emanuel Belinfante, such a cool name.

It would have been your 87th birthday today dear Willem. But you died aged 9. You were murdered in Sobibor on July 2,1943, the same day as your parents and your younger brother ,Herman Isaac Emanuel Belinfante, he was aged 6.

There is another brother but I don’t know his name. All I know is that he survived.

Your last name.Belinfante, is quite a famous name in the Netherlands. Joost Belinfante, is a musician and a composer who was linked to Dutch ska band called’ Doe Maar’. His sister Judith Belinfante was an elected member of parliament and the director of the Jewish Historical Museum in Amsterdam, She was born 13 days before you were murdered.

I wonder if you were related?

You too could have become a musician and composer, or a director of a museum but an evil regime did not think you were fit for life, they decided your fate for you.

I hope your surviving brother found a nice family after the war. But I could never begin to imaging how he must feel, the pain and the uncertainty he had to endure.

Happy Birthday Willem Belinfante. I hope you are having a beautiful cake in heaven with your family.

Source

https://www.joodsmonument.nl/nl/page/176736/willem-belinfante

Seeing takes a second- The thoughts will last forever.

The title is the translation of a line of a Dutch song called ‘Blauw’ or “Blue”. I was listening to it in my car yesterday, while I was on my way to the Covid 19 vaccination centre.

That particular line stuck with me. That is exactly what I go through every time I do an article about the very young Holocaust victims. Seeing them, or rather seeing a picture of them, only takes a second but the thought last forever. I don’t how may seconds I have seen pictures of children, all I know there faces stay with me

The picture above is of Rolf Dirk Ullmann, he was born on March 31,1943 in Westerbork, the Netherlands and was murdered in Auschwitz on October 8,1944. He was only about 18 months old.

He was first transported to Theresienstadt on January 20,1944. On October 6,1944, he was transported to Auschwitz. He arrived on October 8, he was murdered.

His first and last steps he took, were in a concentration camp. His first words, if any, were uttered in a concentration camp. He got his first and his last feed in a concentration camp. All he ever knew was captivity and hate from those who put him there.

His mother Edith Ullmann-Fleischmann was born in Ebeslbach, Bavaria, Germany on October 31,1912. I don’t know for sure but I reckon she escaped Germany when the Nazis took power. More then likely she would have ended up in Westerbork, which was a refugee centre for Jews who escaped Germany and Austria prior to the outbreak of World War 2.

She ended up in Westerbork again during the war. This time it was a concentration camp, a so called transit camp. Here she gave birth to her son, Rolf Dirk Ullmann.

Edith also had a daughter, Ellen Wilhelmina Ullmann. She was born in the Netherlands on September 15,1939 in the town of Oud-Beijerland, which translates in to Old Bavarialand.

Ellen Wilhelmina was also murdered in Auschwitz on October 8,1944. Only a few weeks after her 5th birthday.

Edith Ullmann-Fleischmann was murdered on October 9, 1944 , a day after her children, In Auschwitz Birkenau. I don’t know why she was murdered a day later. I can also imagine after seeing her children being murdered, she gave up the will to live. As a parent I can fully understand that.

These 3 innocent souls are just a few of the 6 million Jews killed during the holocaust. Six million seconds, 1.666.66 hours or 69.44 days. But as the title said already, to me seeing every picture takes a second, the thoughts will last forever.

It is up to all of us to NEVER EVER let there be another Holocaust.

sources.

https://map.stolpersteine.app/en/utrecht/locations/handelstraat-48

https://www.oorlogsgravenstichting.nl/persoon/156474/edith-ullmann-fleischmann#

https://www.oorlogslevens.nl/tijdlijn/Rolf-Dirk-Ullmann/01/36729

https://www.joodsmonument.nl/nl/page/41302/rolf-dirk-ullmann

When you come back to school, and your classmates are gone.

The last few years have been a strange year for a great number of countries across the world, especially when it comes to education. There is no doubt that the Covid 19 pandemic will have consequences down the line for many students.

However most of them when they go back to school, they will still see their fellow school friend and students.

During the Holocaust a great number Jewish children were killed. In the Netherlands 75 % of all Jews were murdered. Yet the Nazis still created the illusion, that life was reasonably ‘normal’ for the Jews. Jewish children were still going to school, although their curriculum was greatly reduced. Even extra curricular activities were still encouraged.

This to me is one of the more sickening of the Nazi occupation, they gave people false hope. I have said this before that the Nazis had never been abled to succeed with their final solution plans without the help of other. The bureaucrats, the civil servants, the public transport staff and also other citizens who thought they could benefit from the removal of their Jewish neighbours, this wasn’t only the case in the Netherlands but all of occupied Europe. The one main difference with the Netherlands compared to many of the other countries, the Dutch had an extremely efficient public service, which was used to its full capacity by the Nazis.

I sometimes wonder how distressing it must have been for those poor children to see that every time they came back to school from a break, or after the weekend, some of their classmates were gone. What questions would have gone through their minds?

Any nation that kills their children, kills its own future. Most of the children in the pictures in this blog would have been murdered during the Holocaust. I don’t know their names, where they lived, what age they were. But that is not important, all I know that none of them deserved to be treated like subhuman, none of them deserved the be murdered, none of their futures should have been stolen from them. What they deserve now is to be remembered and for all is us to work hard to avoid something like the Holocaust happening again.

Source

https://beeldbankwo2.nl/nl/beelden/?mode=gallery&view=horizontal&q=Joodse%20Kinderen&rows=25&page=2

Reached the age of….

One thing that never should be said about children is “Reached the age of..” Yet this did apply to so many children who were murdered during the Holocaust. Everyone who was murdered during that time was innocent.

1.5 million children were killed. 1.5 million human being who never were allowed to blossom into you men and women. Murdered because they were Jewish, Roma or disabled. The though just sickens me.

The number is just unfathomable, but to put it in some sort of perspective, the world’s biggest stadium is Rungrado 1st of May Stadium,in Pyongyang, North Korea. It can hold up to 150,000 people, which is only the equivalent of 10% of all the children murdered during the Holocaust.

I am not able to name all those children, it would take me several live times to do so. Therefore I am just going to remember a few in this blog. Young people who only reached the age of…

The picture above is of Jonas Wallage who reached the age of 13, and of his brother Hartog Wallace who reached the age of 8. Both boys were murdered in Auschwitz.

Hanna Maria Steinbock, reached the age of 8. Murdered in Sobibor

Esther Frederika Polak, reached the age of 5. Was murdered in Auschwitz.

Marcel Alter, reached the age of 5. Was murdered in Auschwitz.

My fear is that these kids will be forgotten because of politics. It was politics that murdered them in the first place, and now it is politics that is trying to erase their memories.

Either by complete denial or by people who get offended that they are reminded that these children were killed in their country.

I will do my best to keep their memories alive. I hope you do your bit by sharing their stories and help to fight any sort of Holocaust denial.

It’s their birthday today, but they were murdered before the age of 6.

I was going to do a piece on Nora Italiaander. She would have celebrated her 80th birthday today, but she was murdered on June 4,1943 in Sobibor. She was just aged 2.

The picture above is of her death notification issued on the 11th of June 1947, 4 years after her death.

But like Nora there were more children who were born on September 26 and they only got to celebrate a few birthdays. They were murdered before they were six. Below are just the names ,date of birth ,place of death and date of death. Sometimes it is harrowing enough just to see the raw data. All you really need to know is that they were children murdered for no reason.

Emma Reina Kalker-Born September 26,1940. Murdered in Auschwitz November 9,1942 -Age 2

Anna Neeter-Born September 26,1940. Murdered in Sobibor June 4, 1943-Age 2 The exact same dates as Nora Italiaander.

Helene Scholte-Born September 26,1940.Murdered in Auschwitz October 27 ,1942 -Age 2.

Louis van der Velde-Born September 26,1938. Murdered in Auschwitz February 11 ,1944 -Age 5.

Henri Andriesse-Born September 26,1938.Murdered in Auschwitz October 12 ,1942 -Age 4.

Philip Salomon Witteboon-Born September 26,1937.Murdered in Auschwitz October 26 ,1942 -Age 5.

Jeanne Lens-Born September 26,1937.Murdered in Auschwitz October 8 1942 -Age 5.

Rebecca Velleman-Born September 26,1937.Murdered in Sobibor May 14 1943 -Age 5.

Anne Groenteman-Born September 26,1936.Murdered in Auschwitz September 28 1942 -Age 6.Her eyes haunt me.

Source

https://www.joodsmonument.nl/

I have to tell your story- Betrayed by domestic violence.

Capture

I don’t want to tell your story but I have to. It is my duty as a father and as human being to ensure that no child will ever get treated like you were treated, My heart breaks each time when I see a picture of innocence, knowing that this innocence was destroyed.

What makes the story of Eva and Liane Münzer even more sad and poignant is that they were betrayed not by their enemies but by the actions of their friends. The two girls were from Jewish Polish parents who lived in the Netherlands, In 1942 their father was sent to a German labour camp.. Their mother recognized the dangers they would be facing and decided to place the 2 girls with catholic friends of the family.

Sometime in 1944 the Police was called to deal with a domestic violence case , the Police were called to the house of the rescuers of Eva and Liane. The husband and wife had a fight and the husband denounced his wife and the 2 Jewish girls. The Münzer sisters were sent to Auschwitz and murdered.Eva was 8 and Liane was 6.

They had a younger brother who survived the war, as did their mother, The father died a few months after liberation, at least the only comfort he had he died a free man.

It is just so heartbreaking to see that a mother who thought she did the best for her children had to find out that the decision she made turned out to be the wrong one. But she was not to know. as a parent I more then likely would have done the same.

Everyday I am thankful that I have never been out in that position.

The people to blame for the death of Eva and Liane were the Nazis and those who helped them, I don’t even blame the foster or rescue mother , she put her life at risk as did her husband but he eventually put his own life above that of his wife and the 2 children he vowed to protect. He though he was more valuable then the people around him. Nithing is more valuable then the life of a child.

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

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/photo/sisters-eva-and-liane-muenzer?parent=en%2F7711

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/83760575/eva-munzer

Remembering the innocents.

children

Every life lost during the Holocaust was an innocent life but the lost lives of Children is what disturbs me the most.

I just want to say this blog is not made up of scientific data but just an idea that came up in my head overnight, and thinking of it to me it sounded like a logical conclusion.

An estimated 1.5 million Jewish children were killed during the Holocaust. If you take the definition of  a child to be anyone under the age of 18 ,you quickly realize that if the holocaust had not happened the majority of them would more then likely be still alive today.

WWII started in September 1939, although elements of the Holocaust started several years before the start of war, there are no known records of any Jewish children being killed before that.

Lets take the year 1939, a child of 17  then would have been born in 1922. That child would have been 99 today. Then when you take 1945 ,the end of the war, and take a newborn child just days before the end of the war, lest say April 20, 1945. That child would now have celebrated its 76th birthday.

To me it is a logical conclusion that the age range of those 1.5 million children would today be between 76 and 99, Given the fact the mass murders of Jews was really accelerated from 1942 onward , one can come to the conclusion that the majority of those children would now have an age range between 76 and 79.

Especially since scientific progress has made it possible for so many people to live a long life nowadays, Just imagine the possibilities if those 1.5 million children had been allowed to live, how many of them would have become scientists? Working on  cures for life threatening diseases?

1.5 million

I don’t know who the children are in the pictures above, maybe some of them survived. However I also don’t know if the figure of 1.5 million is correct. Again I have no scientific data for this but it only stands to reason that the number must be much higher. There are no records of children who died at birth during the holocaust, nor are there accurate numbers of children who died during  or just before transport. Then there are pregnant women whose pregnancies were forcibly terminated either through experiments or otherwise.

All I want to do is remember all those who could have walked among us but because if the ideology of a warped lunatic, whose birthday it is today, and his cronies these 1.5 million + human beings were denied a life.

Four Innocent Lives

4 kids

This picture really upset me, it comes from an album from the National Monument of Camp Vught. When I saw the picture first I thought it was a family picture of 4 siblings. But these kids are not related, it appears to be a staged picture taken at  Vught Concentration Camp

But that is not what upset me, what did, is the notion that these 4 kids were given some bit of hope of a life, but that life was taken from them.

4 futures taken for no other reason but hate.

What is even more upsetting is that so little is known of these children , only the bare facts and not even all the facts either.

The boy in the picture, top left, is Simon Koster born 20 January 1934 in Amsterdam.Murdered in Auschwitz 17 September 1942 .aged 8.

The little girl in front of  Simon is Dora Fresco, born 13 September 1940.in the Hague Murdered in Sobibor 16 July 1943, aged 2.

The oldest girl ,top right is Rabecca Pemina Vorst, date of birth not known, birthplace not known. Murdered in Auschwitz 26 March 1943.

The baby lying down on the bed is Rosalie van Baale, born 22 June 1941, in Amsterdam. Murdered in Vught Concentration Camp on 12 April 1943, aged 1.

NEVER EVER FORGET WHAT HATE CAN DO.

A slight correction, one of my readers found some additional information and discovered that the 4 children are related through their mothers who were sisters from each other, and the picture was made before they were sent to Vught.

The kids all have different surnames which indicates 4 mothers. This makes that picture even more upsetting because it means that 4 young families were either killed or torn apart.

 

 

 

 

My heart is broken

walk

I don’t know how often I have seen this picture but it is today it finally broke my heart.

I sat down and looked at it for a few minutes. Where before I only saw an woman, probably an elderly woman and 3 children walking towards the gas chambers.

What is so utterly disturbing about this is that they did not know what fate awaited them.

I cam clearly see their shies in the picture. Those shoes ended up in a pile of other shoes. Maybe were even sold on.

But what utterly devastated me is the innocence, one child is holding the hand of a younger child. I can only presume they are siblings.If I didn’t know the context in which this picture is places , I would think that it was a picture of a grandmother who is going to visit a family member or a friend with 3 kids who are reluctant to do so, but yet they do because they love their grand mother so much.

That is what I see in this picture, love. Love despite the hate that surrounded them.