In the dark of history’s cruel abyss, A child’s innocence—lost in the mist. Amidst the horror, the anguish, the pain, A young soul’s light, forever slain.
In shadowed corners, where terror thrived, A child’s laughter, once so alive. But silenced now, by tyranny’s hand, In a world where humanity couldn’t stand.
No tender embrace, no gentle care, Just the echoes of sorrow, lingering in the air. In the grip of hatred’s ruthless hold, A child’s dreams—forever cold.
Their nameless faces haunt the past, In the chambers of death, their innocence is cast. Yet in our hearts, their memory lives, A testament to the love each child gives.
Though tears may fall for those we’ve lost, Their spirits endure, whatever the cost. In the song of remembrance, their voices soar, A tribute to the children of war.
So let us vow, with every breath, To never forget, to honor their death. For in their innocence, we find our plea, To build a world where all children are free.
Rest in peace Willem Alvares (Wimpie) Vega.
Born in Amsterdam on 5 August 1939 and murdered in Sobibor on 21 May 1943. He reached the age of three.
I appreciate that the speed of communication in 1945 was not as fast as it is now—but the Wehrmacht soldiers in Amsterdam on May 7, 1945, would definitely have heard that on May 4, 1945, Field Marshal Montgomery accepted the official surrender of the German army in Northwest Europe at his headquarters on Lüneburger Heath in Germany. Then, on May 5, 1945, while Germany had already officially surrendered, General Blaskowitz in Hotel de Wereld in Wageningen signed the capitulation.
However, as thousands of people gathered to celebrate the end of the war and the arrival of Allied forces, German soldiers suddenly began firing into the crowd from nearby buildings. The exact reasons for the shooting remain somewhat unclear—but it’s believed that the German troops, who had not yet formally surrendered, fired in response to the jubilant atmosphere and possibly out of frustration or defiance.
While the local citizens celebrated on Dam Square, German soldiers of the Kriegsmarine were trapped inside the Groote Club (Grand Club) building, a large building at the corner of the Dam and Kalverstraat. In the nearby Paleisstraat, local forces arrested two German soldiers. One of them refused to surrender his weapon and fired a shot. German soldiers then appeared in the windows, on the balcony and on the roof of the Groote Club and started firing into the crowd with machine guns.[4]
Large-scale panic broke out in Dam Square and most of the crowd dispersed via the Nieuwendijk, Rokin and Damrak. Some people sought cover behind street lights and other objects, including a small truck and a barrel organ known as ‘t Snotneusje.[2][3]
After the initial shots, the Germans and resistance forces began to exchange fire. In total, the shooting lasted about two hours, until about 5pm. Members of the Scouts, Red Cross and nurses attempted to aid the victims.
The shooting lasted for two hours and ended around 5pm that day. The shooting resulted in numerous casualties, including deaths and injuries among civilians who had come to Dam Square to rejoice in the liberation of their city. The incident marred what should have been a moment of joy and marked the last violent act of the German occupiers in Amsterdam before their complete surrender.
It still remains unclear exactly how the shooting stopped.
According to some sources, Major Overhoff, commander of the local forces, convinced German Captain Bergmann to accompany him to the Groote Club and order the Germans to cease fire. Other sources say that the incident had ended earlier, once local forces fired bazookas at the building (or at least threatened to fire them).
The shooting was never fully investigated. After the event, local newspapers reported between 19 and 22 fatalities, but no official list of casualties was ever released. Stichting Memorial voor Damslachtoffers 7 mei 1945, an organisation founded to commemorate the event, has since identified a total of 32 people who died as a result of the event, not including German casualties. Twenty-six died immediately while five more died later of gunshot wounds. The last known victim died on June 22. The actual number of fatalities may be higher; in some cases, it had not yet been determined whether the death was related to the Dam Square shootout. The full number of wounded is also unknown; newspaper reports gave between 100 and 120 wounded.
In the photograph above you see a little girl walking away from some people that were trying to take cover. That little girl is Tiny van der Hoek. This is her recollection of that dreadful day.
‘My name is Tiny van der Hoek. I was 2 and a half years old and I was standing at the ice cream cart on the corner of Nieuwendijk Street and Dam Square, where I had just got an ice cream.
Immediately the ice cream fell on the ground to my great disappointment… People ran or stood behind something. I saw that from the ‘Groote Club’ (Grand Club). At the time this was the place where German flags were hanging and German soldiers were sitting. They were to blame for not having ice cream anymore so I went there. My mother was left with the ice cream cart.
Walking on Dam Square, towards the Groote Club, between running people, but exactly against the direction that they went, I was already on my way when I was suddenly picked up by a gentleman. He took me in his arms, put his jacket around me, and ran towards Nieuwendijk where I lived, at the time.
My mother came back—but nowhere inside was there shelter, everything was full, and we were refused entry. That gentleman saw that there was still room under the billiards in that shop. He kicked in a window, my mother crawled inside and took me in and we had shelter under the billiards. That gentleman disappeared towards Dam Square. Was he going to provide more help or find shelter himself? I do not know.
In my memory, there were always “slashes”. Later, in an amateur video recording made by Bert Haanstra, I understood that those “slash people” behind the lampposts were looking for cover behind each other. During my “mission”—complaining about having no more ice cream—I was focused on the corner window of the “Groote Club.”
It’s the window I still look at when I am in Amsterdam, where in my memory people on the street were resting. I didn’t realize then that I was walking past injured or dead people, so mesmerized I was to tell those evil people how mean I found them. Fortunately, I was picked up and brought to safety. This event on May 7th 1945 is still on my mind and of course, it was only later that I understood what was really going on.”
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In the shadows of history’s darkest hour, Lies a place where hope lost its power. Auschwitz-Birkenau, silent and stark, Bears witness to humanity’s deepest mark.
Within its fences, anguish did reign, As innocent souls felt the tormenting pain. Their cries echoing through the chilling air, Beseeching a world that seemed not to care.
In barracks cramped, they huddled in fear, Their dreams shattered, their future unclear. Families torn apart, their bonds severed, In the grip of hatred, they endured forever.
Yet amidst the despair, a flicker of light, As they clung to memories, holding them tight. Love transcending barbed wire and hate’s decree, A testament to the strength of humanity.
Though they may be gone, their voices still rise, A haunting reminder of the ultimate price. We vow to remember, to honor and mourn, The souls of Auschwitz, forever reborn.
Let their stories be told, let their names be heard, May their legacy inspire, their memory preserved. For in our remembrance, they shall never be lost, The victims of Auschwitz, forever embossed.
These are just a few.
Ester Wouthuijsen-Ricardo, born in Amsterdam, on 8 August 1887—was murdered in Auschwitz Birkenau, on 14 August 1942. Reached the age of 55 years.
Alexander Waterman was born in Amsterdam on 20 March 1937. Murdered in Auschwitz Birkenau on 2 August 1942. He reached the age of 5.
Esther Eveline Werkenda was born in Borgerhout on 13 September 1933. Murdered in Auschwitz Birkenau on 2 August 1942. She was 8 years old.
Abraham Schuit was born in Amsterdam on 19 September 1907. Murdered in Auschwitz Birkenau, on 30 September 1942. He reached the age of 35 years. Occupation: Diamond polisher
Sara Mol-Pam was born in Amsterdam on 23 June 1904. Murdered in Auschwitz Birkenau on 26 August 1943 at the age of 39.
Nieuwlande is a village in the Netherlands, located in the province of Drenthe, known for its unique history during World War II. During the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, Nieuwlande became a safe haven for Jews and others. The villagers, predominantly farmers, worked together to hide Jewish families and individuals, saving them from persecution and deportation to concentration camps. This act of resistance and compassion is known as the Nieuwlande Experiment, and it stands as a testament to the courage and humanity of the people who lived there. Today, Nieuwlande is remembered for its remarkable role during the war, and there are monuments and memorials in the village to honor the bravery of its inhabitants.
Unlike other forms of resistance, which often involved armed struggle or sabotage, the Nieuwlande Experiment was a non-violent, highly effective form of resistance. The villagers risked their own lives and livelihoods to offer sanctuary to those fleeing the horrors of the Holocaust. They provided hiding places, food, and support, all while living under the constant threat of discovery by the Nazis.
Because of this unique, collective relief action, on April 11, 1985, the entire population of Nieuwelande was presented with an honorary certificate from the Israeli institute Yad Vashem by the Israeli ambassador Yaacov Nechushtan. Johannes Post was the driving force behind the resistance in Nieuwlande. He was born on October 4, 1906, in Hollandscheveld near Hoogeveen. During the occupation, he abandoned his prosperous agricultural business in Oosterhesselen (Drenthe) to devote himself entirely to resistance work. He played an important role, especially in the national Fighting Squads. Post was the leader of the KP(fighting squad) in the north of the Netherlands and undertook many sabotage actions and robberies of distribution offices and prisons. On July 16, 1944, Post was shot in the dunes near Bloemendaal. The prominent resistance fighter was buried at the Honorary Cemetery in Overveen. Unveiling The monument was unveiled in 1985.
Johannes Post was a Dutch resistance fighter during World War II, known for his leadership and bravery in resisting the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. Born on October 4, 1906, in Hollandscheveld, Netherlands, Post was a devout Christian and a schoolteacher by profession.
Post became involved in the resistance movement early in the war, joining the group, “De Gereformeerde Kerken,” affiliated with the Dutch Reformed Church. He later became a prominent member of the resistance organization known as the Knokploegen, or “Fighting Groups,” in the Drenthe region.
Post and his resistance group were involved in various acts of sabotage against the German occupiers, including destroying railways, disrupting communication lines, and assisting in smuggling Jews and downed Allied pilots to safety. They also collected intelligence and distributed underground newspapers to counter Nazi propaganda.
In addition to his activities in the resistance, Post played a key role in the Nieuwlande Experiment, helping to organize the hiding and protection of Jews in the village of Nieuwlande, where he lived.
Post’s resistance activities eventually led to his arrest by the Gestapo in 1944. Despite being subjected to torture, he refused to divulge information about his comrades or the resistance network. On July 16, 1944, Johannes Post was executed by firing squad along with his brother, Marinus, and several other resistance members.
Post’s bravery and sacrifice have been remembered and honored in the Netherlands. He is regarded as a national hero for his role in the resistance against Nazi oppression.
Roffel, Willem & Ritske (Blaak) Willem Roffel, born in Odoorn, was the beadle of the strictly Calvinist Dutch Reformed church in Nieuwlande, Drenthe. Nieuwlande is renowned for the large number of Jews hidden there during the war, among them two youngsters known as Peter and Herman (but actually named Isidore Joseph Davids and Lou Gans). Peter and Herman were training to be graphic artists and they were both talented draftsmen. While in hiding, they made themselves useful by falsifying identity cards and food coupons. They also wrote De Duikelaar, a satirical illegal weekly publication. In addition to these activities, Peter and Herman designed cartoon postcards to be sold to Resistance sympathizers, with the proceeds being donated to the Resistance. In October 1943, Nieuwlande was subjected to regular house searches, thus, the boys’ hiding place became unsafe. They moved the handouts to a safe hideout, dug out under the church’s pulpit. In this hideout, they set up their drafting tables, and a printing press and continued their work by candlelight. Willem Roffel and his wife, Ritske, also born in Odoorn, were the only people who knew about the hiding place and supplied Peter and Herman with food and other necessities daily. Willem and Ritske also distributed the fugitives’ publications and forged documents from the hideout. Peter and Herman hid in the dugout for nine months. One night in December 1944, the Germans carried out a house search. They forcibly took Willem to the church and ordered him to show them the hiding place. By this time, the boys were no longer there. On June 9, 1983, Yad Vashem recognized Willem Roffel and his wife, Ritske Roffel-Blaak, as Righteous Among the Nations.
It was certainly not the case that the entire village helped people in hiding en masse. That turns out to be a myth that was/is maintained consciously or subconsciously by some people. In short, this is because until recently the village was far too lowly estimated during the war in terms of the number of houses and inhabitants, plus the many hiding activities in surrounding villages were also wrongly attributed to the statistics that have been attributed to this village. This creates very skewed proportions and it seems as if almost every farm in this village must have had people in hiding, which is certainly not the case.
It is people like this though that make me proud to be Dutch, because many other Dutch, collaborated with the Nazis or turned a blind eye.
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The story of Emanuel Arnold Maurice Speijer reminds me a lot of that of Nikolai Vavilov, a scientist who sacrificed his life to save the seeds in the Leningrad seed bank. Emmanuel Speijer was more fortunate though.
Speijer was an entomologist. Entomology is the study of insects and their relationship to humans, the environment, and other organisms. Entomologists make great contributions to such diverse fields as agriculture, chemistry, biology, human/animal health, molecular science, criminology, and forensics.
For most people, a concentration camp would not be the obvious place to collect insects. However, for the Dutch Jewish scientist Emmanuel Speijer, establishing an entomological collection was a way to survive. While he was a prisoner in De Schaffelaar internment camp, in Barneveld, Westerbork, and Theresienstadt concentration camps, He did research on the insects that lived there and the diseases they spread. After the liberation, he published an article on his experiences, ‘Entomological work in the Nazi camps’
Speijer managed to use his passion for entomology to make life a bit more bearable in the camps. Insect plagues were resolved in an animal-friendly manner and he tried to prevent infections such as typhus by drawing up rules. The extensive Westerbork collection was collected in just one year.
This drawer contains all kinds of bees, bumblebees, wasps and ants collected in concentration camps during the Second World War by Emanuel Speijer.
On 19 December 1942, Speijer and his family were deported to De Schaffelaar internment camp near Barneveld in the Netherlands. More than 600 ‘socially prominent’ Dutch Jews were interned in the camp, which was housed in a castle, between 1942 and 1943. Due to their positions or connections, they were initially exempt from deportation to the East, but they too, faced increasingly strict rules.
Speijer’s stay in De Schaffelaar did not last long. After nine months, he was deported to Westerbork in the Northeastern Netherlands. He felt that it was important to preserve his collection, even if this meant giving it to the Germans, and he therefore asked them to keep it safe. It is partly thanks to these efforts that some of his collections can still be admired in Naturalis today.
‘In the beginning, it didn’t seem that my stay in this camp would be interesting from an entomological perspective,’ wrote Speijer of his first days in Westerbork. It wasn’t long before the camp’s Medical Service made him the ‘entomologist in the quarantine department.’ Instead of the caterpillars he’d studied in De Schaffelaar, he had to examine new camp prisoners for lice and mites. These bugs need to be removed with the utmost care, to prevent disease from spreading in the camp.
Despite the careful checks in the quarantine department, there were various disease outbreaks in Westerbork. Speijer wrote in length about one of them—the mysterious disease 7. Could this disease have been caused by lice? Or was the culprit a mite that was brought from Greece on rags distributed by the Germans? Speijer began a study to find an answer to this question. He sent specimens of infected skin to Leiden, to no avail.
Speijer spent the final, and perhaps the most turbulent, year of his imprisonment in the Czech concentration camp of Theresienstadt. Nowadays, the typhus outbreak there in the first half of 1945 is one of the most discussed outbreaks of the Second World War. Fearing the Allied advance, the Germans took large groups of prisoners to Theresienstadt in the last months of the war. It soon became impossible to check all new prisoners for lice and ‘disinfect’ them. As a result, the body louse—the main spreader of typhus—rapidly moves through the camp.
Because of his close contact with patients, he also became infected with typhus. After two days, he had such a high fever that he was unable to keep working.
As the Allied forces closed in, the Nazis began to empty ghettos and camps in Eastern Europe and send prisoners on death marches to camps and ghettos closer to Germany. Approximately 15,000 such prisoners arrived in Theresienstadt in the last weeks of April 1945. This increase almost doubled the camp‘s population to approximately 30,000 people.
Following two further visits in April 1945, the International Red Cross took over the running of Theresienstadt on 2 May 1945. One week later, on 9 May 1945, Soviet forces liberated the ghetto. Speijer left Theresienstadt on a stretcher, with the Red Cross.
When he returned to the Netherlands after the war, his ‘first task was to inquire about the collection.’ Unfortunately, little remains of his collections from Westerbork and Theresienstadt. According to him, though, entomology had shown that ‘it can help to give meaning to our lives, even in the most difficult circumstances.’ Doing research had given him a goal and had prevented the occupying forces from breaking his spirit. The tiny creatures had thus been of the utmost importance.
He died on October 30, 1999, at 95, in the Hague, South Holland, Netherlands.
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Just two names of people who should have never been murdered. Micheal van West was a florist. There is no records of his wife, Saartje van West-Goldsmit’s profession, but I will presume she was a stay at home mother. They were no threat to anyone–just two people trying to get by.
Michael van West was the sixth of the nine children of Salomon van West (1859-1931) and Betje Lelie (1853-1935) and born in Amsterdam on 31 October 1887. Like all his brothers and his father, Michel was also a flower dealer. He married Saartje Goudsmit on 31 July 1912 in Amsterdam, a daughter of Levie Goudsmit and Hanna Vos, she was born on 6 October 1887 there. At the same time as Michael, his brother Jacob, married Saartje’s sister, Raatje Goudsmit.
Michael had five brothers and four sisters, all born in Amsterdam. On 1 December 1910, the still unmarried Michael van West left for Belgium and was registered there at the address Krijtstraat 8 in Berchem. According to the statement that Michael made to the Antwerp officials, he planned to stay there for more than six months.
After the marriage of Michael and his brother Jacob van West to Saartje and Raatje Goudsmit respectively, at the end of July 1912, the four of them left for Brussels on 6 August 1912, where they came to live at 31, Rue de L’Ascension.
Nothing is known about the period from August 1912 to 1944 about Michael and his wife Saartje, as well about Jacob and his wife Raatje. However, it is certain that Michael van West and Saartje Goudsmit were arrested in the early spring of 1944 and transferred to the transit camp in Mechelen, Kazerne Dossin. In March of that year, by order of the Central Bureau for National Security, an instruction was issued to urgently proceed to the arrest of Jews.
Michael and Saartje were deported from Mechelen to Auschwitz on 4 April 1944 with convoy 24, which arrived there on 7 April 1944 with 625 victims in total. Of these, 270 were murdered immediately upon arrival in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau; 355 people were registered in the camp, of which 147 were still alive when Auschwitz was liberated.
It is not known whether Michael and Saartje belonged to the group of 270 victims, or to the group of 355 people who were registered. However, it is clear that they did not belong to the 147 people who were liberated ,but were murdered in Auschwitz after 7 April 1944, or died due to exhaustion, abuse or diseases.
The 24th Convoy of 4 April 1944, was one of the many tragic transports during the Holocaust. It departed from Mechelen, Belgium, which was a major transit point for deportations of Jews during World War II. The destination of this convoy was Auschwitz.
The convoy consisted of Jewish men, women, and children who were rounded up by the Nazis and their collaborators as part of their systematic genocide of European Jews. The journey from Mechelen to Auschwitz was harrowing, with cramped conditions, lack of food and water, and the constant fear of the unknown awaiting them at their destination.
Michael and Saartje had two sons. Edouard Elias van West was murdered somewhere in Germany in February 1945. aged 17. The eldest son, Leo van West, was also murdered in February 1945 in Mauthausen. He was 31 years old.
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The ‘Three Hundred and Thirty-Five Years’ War lasted from 30 March 1651 to 17 April 1986.
The “war” between the Netherlands and the Isles of Scilly is one of those curious historical footnotes that often draw a few chuckles. This conflict, if it can even be called that, occurred in 1651 during the First Anglo-Dutch War. The Isles of Scilly, a small archipelago off the southwestern tip of Cornwall, found themselves inadvertently dragged into the conflict.
The story goes that a Dutch fleet, under the command of Admiral Maarten Tromp, was sailing back to the Netherlands after an unsuccessful raid on Spanish silver ships near Cadiz.
Due to navigational errors and bad weather, they ended up near the Isles of Scilly. Mistaking the islands for the more strategic and economically valuable island of Tresco, they launched an attack.
However, the Isles of Scilly were hardly a military power. In fact, they were mostly unaware that there even was a war going on. Upon realizing their mistake and finding nothing of value to plunder, the Dutch fleet left without much incident. No shots were fired, and there were no casualties.
The “war” technically lasted for 335 years because nobody bothered to officially end it until 1986 when a historian, Roy Duncan, from the Isles of Scilly discovered the oversight. The Dutch ambassador to the UK humorously traveled to the Isles of Scilly and formally declared peace, signing a peace treaty to officially end the conflict.
Roy Duncan wrote to the Dutch Embassy in London to see if there was any evidence to support the seemingly absurd claim of a 335-year war. To everyone’s surprise, the embassy uncovered a series of documents that suggested that the Netherlands and the Islands were, indeed, still at war!
The trip even made The New York Times and this is how the world-famous newspaper reported it.
Ambassador Jonkheer Huydecoper made the 28-mile journey from the southwest tip of England to the tiny cluster of islands by helicopter, carrying a lavish scroll declaring the state of war terminated.
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In March 2023, I interviewed Caroline van der Plas shortly after the Dutch Provincial elections. She is the leader of the BoerBurgerBeweging (BBB), (The Farmer–Citizen Movement).
The BBB was founded in October 2019 by agricultural journalist Caroline van der Plas, Wim Groot Koerkamp, and Henk Vermeer from agricultural marketing firm ReMarkAble, in response to the widespread farmers’ protests earlier that month.
The BBB supports Dutch membership of the European Union (EU) for trading purposes but wants to reduce the power of the EU “to a level of how the EEC was once intended” and opposes federalisation of the EU. The BBB also supports Dutch membership of NATO and called for providing Ukraine with F-16s.
The BBB became the biggest part in the provinces with 19.19 % of the votes.
In November 2023, they won 4.65% of the votes during the Dutch national elections. making it the 6th biggest party nationally. They will be key in the coalition which is yet to be formed.
Van der Plas was born on 6 June 1967 in Cuijk to a Dutch father and an Irish mother. Her father, Wil van der Plas (1937–2014), was a sports journalist and worked for the regional newspaper Deventer Dagblad. Her mother, Nuala Fitzpatrick, is a retired politician of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), who served as an alderman in the municipal executive of Deventer. Nuala was born in Waterford but grew up in Limerick.
Van der Plas began her career as a journalist, covering the meat industry for Reed Business. She would later shift to communications, providing support to agricultural workers’ associations and the Dutch Association of Pig Farmers.
Originally a member of the CDA, Van der Plas left the party shortly after the 2019 provincial elections. During her membership, she frequently criticised the party for not doing enough to represent the interests of the agricultural sector. In response to the widespread farmers’ protests that took place in the Netherlands in October 2019, she then founded the Farmer–Citizen Movement (BBB). Her husband sadly passed away in 2019.
The sound isn’t optimal during the interview, due to some technical glitches, but it is clear enough for the main part.
At the beginning of April 1945, the Allies rapidly approached the province of Groningen in the Netherlands. The province’s liberation was in three regions: the border region between Musselkanaal and the Dollard, the city of Groningen, and the “bridgehead Delfzijl.” Local resistance members succeeded in preserving “The Iron Blow.” This was the only bridge over the Stadskanaal in the area that had not yet been destroyed. A reconnaissance unit of the First Polish Armored Division, led by General S.W. Maczek gratefully took advantage of this opportunity and crossed the provincial border at Musselkanaal on April 11. The same day, the Poles advanced further and reached Stadskanaal and Mussel.
The next day, Onstwedde was liberated. At Tange-Alteveer (west of Onstwedde) a Reconnaissance Unit of the German ‘Marinefestungsbataillon 359’, when Polish armored vehicles reached the village on April 13, the Nazis opened fire. The Polish scouts withdrew, after which their artillery shelled Alteveer. Two villagers were killed in this battle, and after the shelling of Alteveer with artillery, the Poles attacked in the afternoon.
Polish tanks set fire to a barn where German naval soldiers were holed up. Polish soldier Bernard Grabowski was shot dead in that shed. When the Germans ran out of the burning barn a little later, they walked straight into a hail of Polish machine guns. The fight was quickly decided. Nine Germans were killed and the remaining soldiers of the “Marinefestingsbataillon” surrendered. Tange-Alteveer was thus liberated.
St. Strz. Bernard Grabowski T. U was born on 15-12-1918 in Krzywka p. Grudziadz in Poland. His army number was 60466 and it belonged to the 1 Pol. Dyv. Panc. (1st Polish Panzer Division). He died on 13-4-1945 in Tange. The exact cause of death is not entirely known. It is said that he was killed by a hand grenade by a German soldier.
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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 Nazi regime really was. It is also why their industrialized way of murder was so effective. It is in human nature to always find the good in our fellow human beings, even animals. No one could really fathom the level of cruelty by the Nazis. It was unprecedented.
Suzanne Kaminski was born on 11 March 1943, in Brussels, Belgium. On 19 April 1943, she was deported from Mechelen to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Upon arrival on 22 April, she was murdered by the Nazis that same day. She was only 45 days old and considered the youngest Jewish child to be deported from Belgium.
Klara Engelsman was born on 30 April 1842 in Amsterdam as the daughter of Salomon “Samuel” Abraham Engelsman and Saartje Hartog Cosman. Klara Engelsman married Daniel Brush on 24 May 1865. As far as we know, the couple had no children. Daniel Brush died at 76 years old on 9 July 1918 in Amsterdam.
At the time of her 100th birthday, Mrs. Klara Brush-Engelsman lived at the home of the Morpurgo family. Later she stayed in the Jewish care home. In March 1944 she arrived in Camp Westerbork, where she was nursed in the camp hospital. There she still experienced her 102th birthday. She was taken on a stretcher to the train on 4 September 1944, which went to Theresienstadt, where she was murdered on 12 October 1944.
The murder of a 45 days old baby and a 102-year-old lady, is the clearest indication that the Nazis’ ideology was based on hate and hate only. Anyone who condoned this or still condones it, subscribes to that same ideology.
History of Sorts 
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