Tag Archives: Orphanage

Westerbork—Sobibor

On 2 March 1943, a train with 1105 people left camp Westerbork for the then-unknown Sobibor extermination camp. After a three-day journey, the train arrived on the 5th of March. It was the first transport from the Netherlands to this camp.

The first transport, like the second, was carried out by passenger train. Then cattle trucks were used. No one survived the first transport.

A few days earlier on 26 February 1943, there was a raid on the Israeli Orphanage in Rotterdam. During the raid at least 50 children were arrested and taken to Westerbork. On 2 March 1943, the children were taken to Sobibor. There they were murdered on 5 March 1943.

Two of those children were Ella Mia Broekman and her younger brother Hans Max Broekman. They were transported to Westerbork on 27-2-1943. On March 2 1943 they were deported to Sobibor together. Their mother, Schoontje had already been murdered in Auschwitz on 26 January 1943. Their father, Abraham was murdered in Vught Transit Camp on 31 January 1943.

Ella Mia Broekman was born in Deventer, the Netherlands, on 5 November 1935. She was murdered in Sobibor on 5 March 1943. She was 7 years old.

Hans Max Broekman was born in Hilversum, the Netherlands on 11 July 1937. He was murdered in Sobibor on 5 March 1943. He was 5 years old.

The orphanage wasn’t the only place that was raided on 26 February 1943.

The Megon Hatsedek (Abode of Beneficence) was established in 1837. The first building was on Hoogstraat, but after it became too small, the hospital was relocated to Houtlaan. This building also turned out not to meet the requirements, and in October 1900 it moved again, this time to the Schietbaanlaan. The hospital was still located here during the outbreak of the Second World War. It continued as a hospital during the war.

On 26 February 1943, the hospital was raided by Dutch WA officers (the paramilitary arm of the Dutch Nazi party) and the Sicherheitsdienst. Even patients who were too sick to be transported were taken. One patient was transported to another hospital in Rotterdam where she later died. A total of 261 patients, residents and staff members were brought to the warehouse, Loods 24 by truck located in the port area. It had been used by Nazis, as a gathering place for Jewish Rotterdammers who had been called up in Rotterdam and on the South Holland islands.

From Loods 24, the 261 patients and staff were transported to Westerbork on 2 March 1943 and then deported to the Sobibor extermination camp. They arrived in Sobibor on 5 March 1943 and, upon arrival murdered immediately.

Only two nurses, Sophie Huisman and Cato Polak, and the director of the hospital, Dr M. Elzas, survived the war. The director was warned about the evacuation of the hospital and immediately went to the hospital. He left with his patients instead of going into hiding. After the war, he returned to Rotterdam via Westerbork, Barneveld and Theresienstadt.

Another targeted Jewish institution that day was the “Het Israëlitisch Oudeliedengesticht” (The Israeli Old People’s Home). The Israelite Old People’s Home in Rotterdam was for the sick and elderly, founded in 1837. The home evacuated during the large-scale raid in February 1943. They transported the residents on 2 March to Sobibor.

sources

https://www.joodsmonument.nl/en/page/174031/hans-max-broekman

https://www.joodsmonument.nl/en/page/174034/ella-mia-broekman

https://www.joodserfgoedrotterdam.nl/joods-ziekenhuis-megon-hatsedek/

https://www.rijnmond.nl/nieuws/1620701/tachtig-jaar-geleden-worden-261-joodse-wezen-zieken-en-bejaarden-op-een-dag-weggevoerd-uit-rotterdam

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Lia Konijn- A girl I never knew.

I never met Lia, in fact today is the first time I came across her picture. It would have been her 90th birthday today. She was born in Amsterdam, 20 September 1932 . And murdered in Sobibor, 2 July 1943. Reached the age of 10 years.

When I was born she would have been 35. She could have been the midwife who delivered me.

When I was 10, she was 45. She could have been my teacher.

When I was 20, she was 55. She could have been my manager at Philips components.

When I was 30, she was 65. She could have visited me in Ireland for her first trip abroad, celebrating her retirement.

But none of that ever happened. She was murdered on July 2,1943 in Sobibor. Murdered for one reason and one reason only, she was Jewish.

Lia Konijn was the daughter of Mijer Konijn and Betje van Beezem. After her mother had passed away she, and her siblings Marcus, Betty and Mary were housed at the Jewish orphanage at Leiden.

Jewish Orphanage, Machseh Lajesoumim. A place with a tragic history, but also a place where many children, despite the circumstances, had a happy childhood. A place where you could have fun, where you got a little pocket money to spend yourself, where you could be a member of a youth club, where you learned to experience the beautiful aspects of your faith, and for many children it felt like one big family.

During the war, being Jewish, which until then most children had experienced as something joyful, gradually began to take on dark and sad sides. The stories, wisdom, customs and celebrations that had given life in the orphanage rhythm, structure and meaning, were suddenly reason for the outside world to impose all kinds of restrictions. It seemed as if Jews were not allowed to exist. On March 17, 1943, the Orphanage was evacuated by the Leiden police by order of the occupying forces. All history narrowed to that one, fatal moment.

March 17,1943 the same day my Father in Law was born.

Lia Konijn, a girl I never knew. Yet her story touches me on more then one level.

sources

Joods Weeshuis

https://www.joodsmonument.nl/en/page/174606/lia-konijn

The child is no more

kind

The biblical verse Genesis 37-30 has several translation from “the boy is not there” to “And he returned unto his brethren, and said, The child is not; and I, whither shall I go?” But for te title of this blog I used the literal translation of the version of the text which can be found on a plaque which can be found on the facade of  the central Israeli orphanage in Utrecht, the Netherlands.”The child is no more” because it is the most fitting translation for this story, although it should be children rather then child.

The orphanage was run by former Jewish Dutch Gold medal winning Gymnast, Judikje Simons and her husband Bernard Salomon Themans. Judikje had been part of the 1928 Olympics gymnast team.

At the start of 1942 the orphanage had about 50 orphans and a further 30 Jewish children of parents who had sent them to the Netherlands from Germany after the Kristallnacht, in the hope they’d be safe there.

weedhuid

Judikje and her husband also lived  in the orphanage together with their own two children,5 year old daughter Sonja and 3 year old son Leon.. During the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, the family was given a chance to escape deportation to the death camps, but Simons and her husband refused to leave the orphans.

Simons

In October 1942 the Nazis deported everyone from the orphanage. First they were sent to Westerbork and later they were deported to Sobibor.

The Simons-Themans family all were murdered in the Sobibor gas chambers on March 20,1943.

Nearly all of the children from the orphanage were killed in Sobibor as were the resident carers.

 

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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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Source

Joods Monument

Cavan Orphanage fire

mi-cavan_orphanage_grave

(Originally posted February  24,2017)

In the early hours of 24 February  in 1943 fire broke out in the basement laundry of St. Joseph’s Orphanage & Industrial School run by the enclosed order of Poor Clare nuns in Main St., Cavan town. The fire very quickly turned into an inferno. The alarm was raised by horrified townspeople who tried to help. At first they could not gain access to the convent and when they were admitted it was almost too late too reach the terrified, screaming children, trapped in the top floor dormitories. A hugely inadequate fire service meant that within forty minutes the flames had taken hold, the roof had caved in and the building was left just a shell. Thirty five children and an elderly lay woman burned to death. The following day the remains of the thirty six bodies were recovered from the smoldering ruin. They were put in just eight coffins and buried subsequently in a mass grave.

ft5s-st-josephs-orphanage-and-industrial-school

The subsequent investigation attributed it to a faulty flue. The sight of smoke coming out of the building alerted people on Main Street. They went to the front entrance and tried to gain entry. Eventually they were let in by one of the girls but not knowing the layout of the convent, they were unable to find the girls.

By this time all of the girls had been moved into one Dormitory. At this stage it would have been possible to evacuate all of the children but instead the nuns persuaded the local people to attempt to put out the fire. Two men (John Kennedy and John McNally) went down to the laundry to try to put the fire out. The flames were now too intense for this to be possible and McNally only survived by being carried out by Kennedy.

By this point it was no longer possible for the girls to get out through the main entrance or the fire escape. The local fire brigade had then arrived but their equipment was not sufficient for this fire. Wooden ladders were not long enough to reach the dormitory windows. In the absence of any other solution girls were encouraged to jump. Three did so, though with injuries, however most were too frightened to attempt it. By the time a local electricity worker, Mattie Hand, arrived with a long ladder, and a local man, Louis Blessing, brought five girls down. One child left by way of the interior staircase while it was still accessible. One child made it down the exterior fire escape. One child escaped by way of a small ladder held on the roof of the shed. the fire completely engulfed the dormitory and the remaining girls died.

0000a5a3-250

Incredibly, when alerted to the gathering smoke by a orphan girl, a senior nun made the decision not to evacuate the children, instead she directed them to the top floor dormitory and closed the doors.

Being an enclosed order, the nuns were reportedly reluctant to leave the building themselves, which they considered would be a violation of their vows.

Over concerns about the causes of the fire and the standard of care, a Public Inquiry was set up. The report’s findings stated that the loss of life occurred due to faulty directions being given, lack of fire-fighting training, and an inadequate rescue and fire-fighting service. It also noted inadequate training of staff in fire safety and evacuation, both at the orphanage and local fire service.

This finding has been disputed by many, including in a piece of verse (to be precise, a Limerick) written by the secretary to the Inquiry Brian O’Nolan, better known as the author Flann O’Brien, and one of the counsel representing the Electricity Supply Board, Tom O’Higgins, later Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and presidential candidate.

“In Cavan there was a great fire,Judge McCarthy was sent to inquire,
It would be a shame, if the nuns were to blame,
So it had to be caused by a wire.”

It was alleged that the nuns prevented firefighters entering the building in case they saw the girls inside in a state of undress.

Due to the nature of the fire, the remains of the dead girls were placed in 8 coffins and buried in Cullies cemetery in Cavan. A new memorial plaque was erected in 2010 just inside the convent gates at Main Street, Cavan. The plaque was anonymously donated to the Friends of the Cavan Orphanage Victims group.

Cavan Orphanage Fire Of 1943

https://www.independent.ie/opinion/letters/remembering-the-victims-of-cavan-orphanage-fire-42355092.html

https://www.irelandxo.com/ireland-xo/history-and-genealogy/timeline/fire-cavan-orphanage

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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