Westerbork
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Starting in May 1942, wearing a yellow fabric star in the Netherlands, called the “Star of David,” was made compulsory by the Nazis. This measure made it easy to identify Jewish people and was designed to stigmatize and dehumanize them. This was not a new idea; since medieval times many other societies had forced their…
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Sometimes I feel like just giving up posting about the Holocaust, but I know I can’t. It is not always the images that upset me, more often it is that lack of images that gets to me. There are no images because the victims were just too young and were born in captivity, so there…
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This story has torn my heart open. I can’t tell you too much about Johannes van der Hoek all I can tell you is that he was born on 6 November 1942, in Westerbork. He must have been placed on a transport to Auschwitz, straight after his birth because, he was murdered there on 9…
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Rita and Sandor Joachim Krammer met their death on 26 October 1942, Nazis murdered them at Auschwitz. Rita was born on 5 January 1935 in Groningen, the Netherlands. Her little brother, Sander Joachim, was born on 15 March 1937. Their mother, Regina Krammer-Gunsberger. was born in Deutschkreuz in Austria, and their father, Jacob Krammer, in…
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Elleke Trijtel was born in Amsterdam on October 24. 160-days later, they murdered you in Sobibor. Dear Elleke, your parents loved each other, you were the fruit of their love. You were born under a regime that hated you so much, they only allowed you to live 160 days. There was no rain the day…
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Approximately 25,000 Jews from Germany and Austria sought refuge in the Netherlands in the 1930s after the Nazis came to power. They were welcomed in the Netherlands because many Dutch were appalled by the treatment of the Jews in Germany. The photograph above shows a large protest meeting in the Amsterdam R.A.I. in 1938 against…
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When I saw this photograph, I was reminded of another photo. It was a picture of my colleagues and I in 1993/1994. It was taken at work on the day of the retirement of one of my colleagues at the time. We had a small party afterwards at the cafeteria of Philips Sittard. The photo…
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On September 29, 1943, Amsterdam was declared ‘Judenrein’. (Free of Jews) It happened after a major raid, in which 5,000 people, including the board and employees of the Jewish Council, were arrested and transported via Amstel station to Camp Westerbork. Those who were able to avoid the raids ended up in hiding places. A countrywide…
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On 3 September 1944, Anne Frank and her family were put on a transport from Westerbork to Auschwitz. It would be the last train to leave Westerbork. The train arrived three days later at Auschwitz. The women selected from this transport, including Anne, Edith, and Margot, were marked with numbers between A-25060–A-25271. Anne Frank’s final…
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Millions were murdered during the Holocaust, and each of these victims represents a tragic and sad story. However, although very few, there were some positive Holocaust stories, but even with the positivity, there was an underlying negative story, because it tells of their disrupted lives. Hans Leo (Henry in later life) Abraham and his sister…
History of Sorts 