Invisible Years a Family's Collected Account of Separation and Survival

Invisible Years A Family’s Collected Account of Separation and Survival during the Holocaust in the Netherlands Daphne Geismar Foreword by Robert Jan van Pelt Narrators Historical contributions Chaim de Zoete Robert Jan van Pelt Fifi de Zoete Jennifer Magee Mirjam de Zoete-Geismar Judith de Zoete-Cohen Translations from Dutch Hadassah de Zoete-Mandel Marjolijn de Jager Nathan Cohen Judith de Zoete-Cohen Erwin Geismar David Geismar Translations from German Zigi Mandel Robert Bjornson David R. Godine, Publisher Boston 1970 | 50 YEARS | 2020 Contents Narrators 6 Robert Jan van Pelt Foreword 16 Daphne Geismar Opening the Holocaust Drawer 20 Note to the Reader 26 Before 30 Trapped 48 Forbidden 60 Separated 84 Invisible 108 Hiding Addresses 110 Chaim & Fifi 112 Mirjam 122 Judith 134 Hadassah 144 Nathan 148 David 160 Erwin 164 After 172 Remembered 190 Zigi 208 Later Years 218 Family Members 222 Primary Sources 226 Robert Jan van Pelt Jennifer Magee History Briefs 228 Further Reading 240 Acknowledgments 244 Credits 248 Separated When the deportations began, Jews had few options for escape. German E-boats (fast attack craft) made a sea crossing to England impossible; jour- neys to neutral Switzerland or Spain were very difficult. By the late summer of 1942, knowing that they would not receive an exemption from deportation, some 40,000 Jews sought hiding places—though only 28,000 would secure them. Going into hiding meant one of two things: either one assumed a differ- ent, non-Jewish identity, or one quite literally hid—or, as the Dutch called it, lived ondergedoken (literally, “submerged”). The first option meant that one had to fabricate a family history and access forged documents. Dutch identity documents were notoriously fake- proof, and the Netherlands had the best population registries in the world. In addition, Dutch society, with its pillars and idiosyncratic local communi- ties, was essentially a collection of villages in which it was difficult for a new arrival to pass as a local. Those who “submerged” had to surrender whatever remained of an independent life, accept the severance of all ties with society and family, and consent to a life in a very small and often very uncomfortable place, invisible to the world, for an indeterminate period. In many cases, hiders were also expected to contribute financially to their sustenance. It was a difficult decision to make. Many of the helpers were people who felt the need to act and who were willing to risk their freedom. Thousands of these helpers worked alone, thousands had the support of their immediate families, and thousands were part of grassroots networks that became quite experienced in finding hiding places, escorting the hunted to safe havens, and meeting needs once there. 4 1942– 1943 August 19, 1942 ca. January 1943 Mid-April 1943 Mirjam begins her time in hiding with David’s aunt, uncle, and cousin, the David returns home to his parents the Willemse family in Voorburg. Eschenheimers, whom David vaca- after a close call with the Dutch tioned with, are forced to move to and German police while attempting Judith and Hadassah first hide with the Amsterdam ghetto. to switch hiding addresses. Kees and Tine Hos in Rijswijk. January 16, 1943 April 13–23, 1943 August–September 1942 The first Jewish prisoners arrive at On April 13, all Jews remaining in the The four sons of Fifi’s sister Annie Vught, a transit camp in southern Netherlands, with the exception of Maarssen—Harry, Bob, Sally, and Holland run by the SS, the Nazis’ those living in Amsterdam and those Bernhard—are murdered in Auschwitz. paramilitary unit. with temporary exemptions, are ordered to go to Vught before April 23. September 1942 January 21, 1943 Hadassah changes addresses, moving Nathan goes into hiding with the Chaim and Fifi go to the Groeneveld to Franciscus and Petronella Zoon family in Utrecht. family in Rotterdam. Lafontaine’s home in Wassenaar. Nathan’s parents begin hiding with April 29, 1943 Judith moves to Alida Wouters- a doctor friend in Velp, in the east- Growing public pressure about the van der Lely’s home in Wassenaar. central Netherlands. need to save Jews in Europe forces the American and British governments September 2, 1942 January 28, 1943 to meet at the Bermuda Conference. Mirjam moves to Jan and Nan Nathan moves to Amsterdam, Fearing a refugee crisis would distract van Gelder’s home in Wassenaar. where he stays with Johan and Mop from winning the war, the delegates Hunningher. evade addressing the Nazis’ plan to Autumn 1942 annihilate the Jews. The Americans Chaim and Fifi go into hiding with ca. February 1943 refuse to take more Jewish refugees; Johanna Leepel-Labotz in The Hague. Nathan’s parents go to hide in the British avoid discussion of permit- Anne and Jo Bakker’s home in Velp. ting Jewish refugees into Palestine. Winter 1942 Chaim and Fifi go to the Hos family March 1943 June 1943 in The Hague, followed by stays David begins hiding in a superinten- Fifi’s sister Jet de Lange and nieces at two undocumented locations. dent’s apartment at an Amsterdam Hetty and Mirjam are murdered wallpaper factory. in Sobibor. December 17, 1942 The Allied powers release a joint March 2, 1943 Early July 1943 statement acknowledging “the bestial The first transport leaves Westerbork The Geismars split up: David and policy of cold-blooded extermina- for the Sobibor extermination camp. Erwin go into hiding with Erika tion,” detailing how the Germans are Heymann in Amsterdam; David’s “carrying into effect Hitler’s often March 9, 1943 mother hides as a non-Jewish repeated intention to exterminate David’s aunt, uncle, and cousin—Luzie, maid for the Hoyer family in the the Jewish people in Europe. From Eugen, and Felix Peter Eschenheimer— Amsterdam suburb of Amstelveen. all the occupied countries Jews are are murdered in Auschwitz. being transported, in conditions July 16, 1943 of appalling horror and brutality, to March 30, 1943 Chaim’s mother and sister, Naatje Eastern Europe.” The Germans order all Jews from eight and Martha de Zoete, are murdered of the eleven Dutch provinces to the in Sobibor. January 1943 Vught concentration camp by April 10. Chaim and Fifi move to a new July 19, 1943 hiding address with Tjeerde and David leaves his father to hide in Antje Miedema in Ede, a city in Friesland, a rural area in the North. the central Netherlands. 5 Family De Zoete ChAim As the situation grew more difficult by the day, schools grew emptier and razzias to round up Jews were held in the nearby village of Voorburg. We decided to go into hiding—with the children separate in order to enhance their possibility of survival. miRjAm We were kept in the dark because you weren’t supposed to worry kids. My parents were very much aware of what was going on. We would hear them whispering and crying. They must have been planning to hide all of us for quite a while. About two weeks before we went History Brief 1 into hiding, I asked my father if we would ever be separated. And he Flight Options said no, we would always be together. It was just the night before we went into hiding that our parents told us it was no longer safe for us to stay home. Any day now the Germans and the Dutch Nazis could burst into our house, load us on a truck, and put us on transport trains to the concentration camps. Many Jews had already been transported to the camps. My father was amazing. He planned and insisted that we hide. He just totally saw that the whole thing was very dark, and he was obvi- ously right. There were two groups of people: the ones, like my father, who saw it—that it was going to be terrible and we had to do anything Jet Polak-de Lange, Fifi’s older sister we could not to get transported; and then there were my mother’s (murdered, Sobibor, June 11, 1943, sister Jet and her husband, who thought that as long as we did exactly 49 years old); Karel de Lange (murdered, Sobibor, July 23, 1943, 42 years old); what the Germans said, then we’d be okay. They went when they were Hetty and Mirjam de Lange, Fifi’s nieces told to go, for the transport. They went with their two kids, including (both murdered, Sobibor, Hetty on June 11, 1943, 8 years old; and Mirjam their oldest daughter—my best friend, who had the same name as me. on June 14, 1943, 13 years old). They went, and they never came back. judith At this point, I would like to clarify a few things. Pappie believed that dreams could be foretelling. He had a dream about Jews being shot and thrown into graves. At that time, nobody knew about the concentration camps in that part of Europe. This dream, which he believed was a warning, made him decide to take measures, and he got in touch with the underground—I think through Mammie’s brothers Ben and Hans, who were communists working for the underground movement. Hans Polak, Fifi’s younger brother They subsequently were caught; Hans and his wife, Annetje, were (murdered, Dachau, February 20, 1945, tortured in a Dutch prison by the Dutch and the German police and 28 years old). sent to Auschwitz. Hans was murdered in Dachau; Annetje survived History Brief 2 and came back to find her daughter, Chaja. Ben escaped from the The Dutch Theater Hollandse Schouwburg (Dutch Theater), where they were held before being sent to prison, and survived.

Load more