Westerbork
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When you look at the picture you might think that it is an innocent portrayal , of a street somewhere in the Netherlands. A typical Dutch scene. Someone cycling, two bikes parked against a sign. What could be hateful here? It is actually the sign itself that has a message of hate. It says “Jews…
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Football in the Netherlands did not come to a complete halt during World War II, despite the Nazi occupation and the hardships of wartime. Instead, it became both a form of escape and subtle resistance for many Dutch people. When the Germans invaded in May 1940, football matches continued under occupation. The Dutch football association…
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Behind every yellow star was a human being with hopes, fears, and a life—just like you and me. This blog will contain images of human beings. These are all photographs of Dutch Jews, or of other European Jews who had managed to escape the Nazi regime—though only briefly. I don’t know the fate of each…
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I was reluctant to use the title, From Zero to 102 as the title, I didn’t want it to look like a review for a car. However, I couldn’t think of a more suitable title either. The 0 and the 102 are the ages of two victims of the Holocaust. This is how evil the…
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Westerbork may not have been an extermination camp, but that didn’t mean it was less evil. In a way, it may have been eviler because it created an illusion that life wasn’t that bad and gave the people a false hope that their endurance of camp life would be temporary. The 261 couples married at…
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Many people may have heard of David Koker or at least know about the remarkable diary he kept during his imprisonment in Camp Vught, a concentration camp in the Netherlands. His writings offer a rare and invaluable insight into daily life in the camp, the resilience of the human spirit, and the looming horror of…
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Judith Kinsbergen, known as Jetty, was the daughter of Salomon Kinsbergen and Marianne van der Kar. She married Max Eugen Groszkopf in 1934 but divorced in 1938. She was born in Amsterdam on February 6, 1908, and was murdered in Bergen-Belsen on February 13, 1945, at the age of 37. She was a talented pianist.…
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There is no way to rank the sadness of Holocaust stories. Each death is a tragedy, a haunting reminder of humanity’s capacity for cruelty. Yet, some stories resonate with an indescribable poignancy, striking us deeply. One such story is that of Friedel Levie, the daughter of Jozef Levie and Else Metzger. Friedel was born in…
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My mother was born on December 10, 1935, and passed away on January 26, 1996, at the age of 60. It felt far too young, but I took solace in the fact that she lived a full life, witnessing all her children grow up and settle into their lives. Sigmund Cohen, born on the same…
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Rachel Elisabeth Italiaander (Chelly) was the eldest daughter of Isidor Italiaander and Esther Stad. She was born on July 1, 1929 in Amsterdam. Still, it wasn’t until 1939 that she had a sister, Elisabeth Julia, and in 1941, a brother, Marcus Jozef, followed. The two youngest children survived the war by going into hiding. Rachel…
