Westerbork
-
On 27 January 1945, the Russians entered the gates of the Auschwitz Concentration Camp complex and liberated the remaining prisoners. Let me show you what led up to the day before—26 January 1945. On 20 January, shortly after the evacuation, the remaining SS functionaries blew up crematoria and gas chambers II and III. The next…
-
Henriëtte Delia (Jetje) Hamburger was part of the so-called Gruppe Unbekannte Kinde, unknown children, a group of more than fifty children whom the Nazis had failed to identify. She and her brother—were betrayed at their hiding place in Amsterdam. Jetje Hamburger was born on December 24, 1943 in Eindhoven. Her parents were no longer together. Her…
-
This is Rachel Soesan—her face is filled with so much life and joy, and why wouldn’t it be when she was 4. Her whole life lay before her. Yet there were some who perceived her as a threat to society. She was born on December 20, 1938 in Amsterdam. She would have been 85 today.…
-
I am actually happy that I could not find any images of Anton de Rosa because I don’t think I could take that. When I say 10 months of life, that is literally what it was. He only lived for 10 months. The picture above is of his birthplace, Bergen Belsen Concentration Camp. Where was…
-
The fact that so many were murdered during the Holocaust is hard to fathom, and it is often compounded by personal stories. None so sad as that of Heinz Felix Geiringer. It is not clear if he died just before the end of the war in Europe or shortly after the end. Several databases list…
-
Before I go into the main story about the holocaust in Limber, I have to explain the geographical situation of Limburg. There are two provinces called Limburg. One is in Belgium, the other in the Netherlands. The Dutch Limburg is the most Southern province of the Netherlands. To the West, it borders Belgium, and to…
-
This is an element of the Holocaust which is often forgotten. There were dozens of Jewish labour camps in the Netherlands (as you can see, I did not say the occupied Netherlands). On 7 January 1942, the Jewish Council in Amsterdam was put under pressure and made responsible for supplying 1,402 Jewish unemployed people. Ultimately,…
-
Caroline Stella Os was born in Rotterdam on 8 October 1940. Her life ended when she was murdered at Westerbork, by the Nazis, on 8 June 1943. She reached the tender age of two years old. How can I write about a girl who only lived for 32 months? What can I write about a…
-
When I do posts on the Holocaust, I always try to do them with as little emotion as possible. I try to be objective as humanly possible. The reasoning I use to write without emotions is if I didn’t, I think I would get mental problems down the line. However, sometimes, I let my emotions…
-
Dear Gert Steinmann, I never met you, yet your story has moved me. I am not the only one who has never met you. How could they, you were murdered when you were 6 days old. There are no baby pictures. There are no baby footprints. There are no baby shoes. Six days were all…
