the Netherlands
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Below are just a few names of athletes and artists who competed in the Olympic Games and were among those murdered during the Holocaust. In 1928, Stella Agsteribbe competed in the first-ever Olympic gymnastics competition for women. Despite placing 13th in the Dutch team selection event, she elected to compete in the group competition. The…
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At the De Zorg farm, on the Oude Sloterweg in Nieuw-Vennep,the Netherlands, the Boogaard family, led by the 75-year-old Johannes Boogaard, showed remarkable compassion. They helped hundreds of—mainly Jewish—people in hiding, providing refuge in every corner of the yard: an air raid shelter, on the haystack, and in a car. Their compassionate actions during the…
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Bernard Henri Piller was born in Maastricht on 8 February 1932 and murdered by the Nazis in Auschwitz on 23 September 1943. He reached the age of 11 years. Henri Samuel Piller was also born in Maastricht on 15 April 1935. The nazis murdered him at Auschwitz on 23 September 1943 at the tender age…
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Vught Concentration Camp, also known as Kamp Vught or Herzogenbusch Concentration Camp, was a Nazi concentration camp located near the town of Vught in the Netherlands. It was the only SS concentration camp in occupied Northwest Europe. In total, the imprisonment of approximately 32,000 people in the camp for a short or more extended period…
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Loulou Oderkerk was a Dutch resistance fighter who worked for the illegal newspaper Trouw. Through Trouw founder Gesina van der Molen, Oderkerk became involved in smuggling Jewish children to hiding places. Oderkerk also started doing courier work for Trouw, transporting copies, essays, newspapers and weapons. In October 1944, she was arrested and held prisoner in…
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On 2 August 1942, 245 Jewish Catholics in the Netherlands were arrested. To the Nazis it didn’t matter if they had converted to Catholicism, in their eyes and according to their laws these people were still considered Jewish. Else, Michaelis was among them. Else Michaelis was born in Berlin on March 30, 1889. Her father…
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In the summer of 1943, Suze Arts, a young unmarried mother, got a job as an SS Aufseherin (female guard) at Camp Vught. She followed a six-week ‘training course’ at the notorious Ravensbrück women’s camp and became one of the most notorious female guards of Camp Vught. Susanne (Suze) Arts was born as the middle…
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y When I write about Holocaust victims, I always try to write it from their point of view. I put myself in their shoes, so to speak, But I find it increasingly difficult to do; it physically affects me. In the case of the Polak family, I decided to just stick with the raw data…
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This grave is of 1 Lt Alvin X Zeidenfeld on Plot O Row 22 Grave 17. Netherlands American Cemetery.Margraten, Netherlands. He was one of the 8301 soldiers buried there. A few years ago, we were allowed to scatter our Father’s ashes on this hallowed soil. Lt Alvin X Zeidenfeld was a First Lieutenant with the…
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Delphine Anja Jennifer Drielsma Delphine was born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, on 19 June 1939. and murdered in Auschwitz, Poland, on 24 September 1942. She reached the age of three. A 3-year-old enemy of the state. Which state, though? In a world where shadows linger, cold and gray,A tender soul was taken far away,Innocence wrapped…
History of Sorts 