the Netherlands
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It is just a photo of a soldier with his family. One could easily dismiss this photograph as someone’s memory. A father who loved to smoke, a mother all dressed up and two well-dressed children—a boy and a girl. This photo could have easily been a picture of my grandfather with his family. Like the…
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I often wonder why did people get married during World War 2. Especially when you were Jewish, because you had even more uncertainty about your life then the general population. But then I look at the 2 people in the picture, and all I see is pure love. That look is the look of a…
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Everyone who was murdered in the Holocaust But murdering a 6 month old baby and a 2 year old toddler took a special kind of evil. The little boy Levy was born on February 6,1942. Just over 6 months later on August 23,1942 he was murdered in Auschwitz. His older sister, Frouwke(Dutch for little woman),who…
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Esther Stad was born this day 80 years ago. You’d expect I would be able to say a lot about Esther. 80 years should have provided me with a lot of data. But there are only a few things I can say about her. She was born on February 4,1942 in Amsterdam. Her Father was…
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The title of the blog is ‘The Steinbach Family’ but is really a blog about the Romani people. The reason why I picked the Steinba,ch family name is twofold. Firstly the picture at the start of the blog is of Settela Steinbach. It is one of the most iconic pictures of the Holocaust. Initially she…
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A good Church has an organ, it is not just a musical instrument but sometimes also a statement of grandeur. During WWII one of these organs also became a hiding place for 3 Jewish families, well more the attic above the organ. During the Second World War, the Breeplein Church in Rotterdam harboured a secret:…
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Before I go into the story of Koenraad , I want to mention someone else. The 2 people are connected by the date January 29,1942. Clazina van Leeuwen-Menassen died on this date, she was a Jewish lady but she was spared the horrors of the camps, she died at the ripe old age of 100.…
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I often think that Edith Frank is a forgotten hero. She was stuck with so many people in such a small space while desperately avoiding being discovered. That would be challenging to anyone’s health. But Edith could not afford to lose her sanity, not even for one second.v She was born in the German city…
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I came across this document which made me glad on one hand, but on the other hand it was also disturbing. But before I go into the details I have to give some background information first. The south of the Netherlands was mostly liberated by October 1944. At that time the Netherlands was made up…
History of Sorts 