The Holocaust in the Netherlands: Individuals
Figure 1.--This Dutch family took in a little Jewsish girl named Irma. The family was that of Martinus van de Tilaart. Here we see his daughter Annie and son Tonnie, we believe in 1943. They lived in the village of Zijtaart, a Catholic village in North Barbant near the Belgian border. This was very dangerous, both for van de Tilaart and his family. It is likely that most of his neigbors knew what he was doing, but no one reported him. A Dutch caption reads, "Annie, dochter van Martinus van de Tilaart (Hoeve Corsica) met vermoedelijk haar jongste broertje Tonnie en op de kruiwagen Irma, een Joods onderduikertje tijdens de oorlog.
This wouls translate as, "Annie, daughter of Martinus van de Tillaart (Farm Corsica) with presumably her youngest little brother Tonnie and in the wheelbarrow Irma, a little Jewish "undergrounder" during the war". The word Hoeve means farm, but in America we would call it a ranch I think.
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It is the accounts of the individual lives extinguished by the NAZIs that are most moving. The best known individual account of the Holocaust came out of the Netherlkands it was daiary kept by a young German refugee girl as she and her family his from the NAZIs. Ann Frank and her family almost survived. The NAZIs found them only a month before the Allies reached Amsterdam. The Franks and another family successfully hid for 25 months in a carefully hidden annex of rooms above her father’s former office. The Franls learned of the D-Day landings and begin to hope thatvthe Allies would soon liberate them. They were, however, betrayed to the NAZIs. Hitler and the NAZIs thought they could murder and destroy on traces of the Jews. Ironically it is Adolf Hitler's memoirs, Mein Kampf that today lies unread and largely forgotten--a distasteful footnote in history. The ideas expressed in it are now rejected and despised, while the book of the little girl they murdered continues to be read an inspire young people today. Ann left a record. Most of the children murdered by the NAZIs did not.
Jews Targeted
We have some information on the Jews in the Netherlands targetted by the NAZIs. This included both foreign (mostly German ) Jews as well as Dutch Jews. Nany German Jews were in the Netherlands at the time of the German invasion (May 1940). The Netherlands was one place the Germn Jews could get to after the NAZIs seized power in Germany (1933). The German Jews had a better survuval rate because they were more familiar with the nature of the NAZIs anf their measures than the Dutch Jews who had never experienced the kind of repression the NAZIs implemnted.
The best known individual account of the Holocaust came out of the Netherlands it was daiary kept by a young German refugee girl as she and her family his from the NAZIs. Ann Frank and her family almost survived. The NAZIs found them only a month before the Allies reached Amsterdam. The Franks and another family successfully hid for 25 months in a carefully hidden annex of rooms above her father’s former office. The Franls learned of the D-Day landings and begin to hope thatvthe Allies would soon liberate them. They were, however, betrayed to the NAZIs. Hitler and the NAZIs thought they could murder and destroy on traces of the Jews. Ironically it is Adolf Hitler's memoirs, Mein Kampf that today lays unread and largely forgotten--a distasteful footnote in history. The ideas expressed in it are now rejected and despised, while the book of the little girl they murdered continues to be read an inspire young people today.
Irma (1941- )
This Dutch family took in a little Jewsish girl named Irma (figure 1). We do not know here last name. The family was that of Martinus van de Tilaart. Here we see his daughter Annie and son Tonnie, we believe in 1943. They lived in the village of Zijtaart, a Catholic village in North Barbant near the Belgian border. This was very dangerous, both for van de Tilaart and his family. We do not know how Irma came to the fmily. It is likely that most of his neigbors knew what he was doing, but no one reported him. We do know that Irma survived,
Herschfeld, Hans
A Dutch reader tells us about Hans Hirschfeld. "His parents were not Dutch but they moved to Holland when Hans was a teenager. The family originated in Riga, Latvia. Hirschfeld's father was Jewish, although not religious. We are not sure about his grandparents. His mother was Lutheran and not of Jewish background. Hirschfeld went to the Netherlands East Indies (Indonesia) where he worked for a bank. He later returned to Holland and thus was caught up in the occupation as a bank officer. He became very controversial during the occupation. He collaborating with Seyss-Inquart and other German (Austrian) Nazis, but he also helped a lot of Dutch people. He was a very interesting man. I do remember reading and hearing about him during the war." [Fennema.] We suspect thast he was not arrested by the NAZIs because he was useful and a Misching, although we do not know if he was a Mischling First or Second Class. After the war he testfied against Seyss-Inquart and was not arrested by the Dutch Government. Collaboration is a difficult issue. Millions of people in the Netherlands and other occupied countries collaborated with the NAZIs. It was virtually impossible not to do so in one way or another. Jews in Ghettoes and concentration camps, for example, collaborated by making uniforms and other items used in the German war effort. But no sane person would fault them for that. The ethical question is whether individuals did more than was absolutely necessary and whether they used the occupation to enrich themselves as the expense of the NAZI victims.
Alfred Münzer was born in the Hague (November 1941). His father, Simcha, before the War owned a men’s tailoring shop. His mother, Gisele, was ahome keeper. He had two older sisters, Eva and Leah. After the German invasion (1940), German officials began taking anti-Semetic actions, including seizing bank accounts and property. After Gisele became pregnant they had a very difficult decesion to make. The Germans also begn compiling names and addresses of Jews and concentrating them in easily accessable locations. When the death canps were ready in Poland, the tranports began (1942). Authorities ordered Alfred’s father to report to a German labor camp which was a ruse for transport to a death camp (May 1942). He managed to delay reporting scheduling a hernia operation. Strange as it may seem, the Germans at this early stage only wanted healthy males. Simcha decided that the fmily would have to go into hiding (September 1942). He faked a suicide attempt in get himself committed to a psychiatric hospital near The Hague. Gisele sold the family’s few remaining possessions and arranged for friends and neighbors to take in the children. She then joined her husband as a nurse nurse’s assistant in the psychiatric hospital with her he husband. Thus they managed to evade the German's for a few more months. Alfred’s parents were finally arrested and held in Herzogenbusch concentration camp near Vught (early-1943).
Saviors
Resistance to the Germans was very dangerous in NAZI occupied Europe. This was especially the case in the Netherlands because there was no place to hide. There are no forests and mountenous areas. The Netherlands is perhaps the most developed country in Europe. It is not only developed, but in the NAZI Empire very isolated. The North Sea to the west was cold abd fofbidden and tightly patrolled by the Germans. And to the east was the Reich itself. The Gestapo proved very adept at hunting down and arresting both Resistance members and Jews. As a result many did not survive the war. This did not stop brave men and women from resisting and trying to save Jes. This is an account of one Dutch Rsistabce group and what they accomplished. Tragically they are among those who were arrested and executed by the Gestapo. Here is an account of one resistance group, Oranje Vrijbuiters founded by Klaas Postma and Frits Meulenkanp in Utrecht (1941). Among other activities, they attempted to save Jews.
I was just a little boy, born in the big city of Utrecht, growing up as any other enterprising youngster, discovering what it felt growing up as my parents’ only child. They had a big store selling all sort of vegetables, pickled vegetables, potatoes, fruits and soft drinks, looked after by my mother, while my father operated a mobile horse-drawn store, both rather very busy during the time of the Great Depression and the looking after of their son was put in the hands of two young aunts, Betsie and Riek Spans, who at their young age exposed the cultural world to him, including the many concerts, opera, and Walt Disney movies. Enjoying the musical world, he enrolled as a boy soprano in one of the local church choirs. Everything was rather peaceful until his world changed on 10 May 1940, when Germany attacked Holland. He observed the rising of big clouds of smoke over Rotterdam and on 14 May the Germans threatened that the beautiful city of Utrecht would follow the same fate of Rotterdam if the Dutch army would not lay down their weapons. On 15 May 1940 the surrender followed, while on the next day we saw German troops passing our street, the 6th German Army of General von Paulus, well-known about his defeat at Stalingrad. Following my parents’ busy life, in 1942 my father accepted a position as Food Inspector of three Dutch provinces and decided to sell his store and move to a small villa in the village of Soest, about 20 kilometers north-east from Utrecht, bordering the Soester Woods and Dunes. Harty practically grew up in the nature of his new surroundings, exploring this newly discovered terrain with his dog. Here life was very peaceful and also enjoyed by many other visiting friends and relatives, establishing good relations with their neighbours, the van den Berg and Demoed families, but more with the van den Berg family. From our kitchen window we could almost look into the kitchen of the van den Berg’s and one day we observed somebody in their kitchen whom we had not met before and wondered who that person was, but we kept quiet. Later I did find out when one day after school I found that person we had observed in the neighbour’s kitchen was in our own home. Mother told me that Leo Karp was going to stay with us for a while, but I had to be kept quiet and immediately I realized that Leo was a Jewish person.
Sources
Fennema, Meindert and John Rhijnsburger. Dr. Hans Max Hirschfeld, de man van het grote geld The man of the big money. (Bert Bakker: Amsterdam, 2007).
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Created: October 9, 2002
Last updated: 2:42 PM 1/15/2018