Lynn is a psychotherapist and clinical social worker. She is the daughter of two Holocaust survivors. In the interview, we discuss the mental impact her parents’ ordeal had on her and also how that translated into her work as a psychotherapist. She was voted The Best Therapist of 2008 by the Main Line Times newspaper in Pennsylvania, USA, and she specializes in anxiety, trauma, PTSD, and grief.
The story of her parents isn’t just a story of survival. It is a story of kindness and bitterness, a love story, a story of perseverance. It is also a tale of despair and disappointment but in equal measure—a story of victory and hope.
Lynn sent me a number of documents relating to her father, Wicek Friedman, which changed to Victor Friedman. That fact on its own is a good indication that after the Holocaust, the struggle continued—changing your name is not something you do lightly. I presume he changed it to make it easier for the people in his adopted land to be able to pronounce his name. I say adopted land because that is what struck me when I saw the document of the Displace Persons registration (photo at the top), which says, “Does not want to return.” He was born in Krakow, Poland on October 5, 1925.
Victor survived Auschwitz (where he escaped), Sachsenhausen, and Dachau. Lynn received the following information about her father from the International Tracing Service.
“Your father was in Auschwitz Concentration Camp where he had two prisoner numbers, 110225 and 199815. At the beginning of May 1944, he was arrested in Kolozsvár, Hungary, and sent by the Security Police in Budapest to Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp in Germany. On November 17, 1944, Wicek was transported to Dachau Concentration Camp in Germany. His Dachau prisoner number was 127009.”
Lynn’s mother, Ella, had also been in Dachau. She was born in Berehova, Berkstad, Czechoslovakia in 1927. After she saw how Victor had been tortured for stealing potato skins to give to those who were starving, she told a friend, “Do you see that brave man—if he survives, I will marry him.”
They did get married in 1950.
Victor and Ella had different outlooks after the war. Victor, although he survived, had many medical complications due to the torture he received in Dachau. Victor’s aim was to replace the horrors he witnessed with acts of kindness. Sadly, he passed away in 1974, just before his 49th birthday. What saddened me to hear is that Victor knew that the hate against the Jews had not disappeared after the Holocaust. He advised his daughter to always be ready to leave.
Ella was basically always in survivor mode as she didn’t show love towards her children. That is not uncommon with survivors—and in a way—it is understandable because she had lost many of her family. She probably was afraid to get too attached again.
She had lied about her age when she was taken to Dachau, giving her year of birth as 1929, but in fact, it was 1927. She reckoned she would have a better chance of survival if the Nazis thought she was younger. Her younger sister had been murdered by the Nazis when she was at the train station—they shot her. Ella passed away in 2017.
This is Lynn speaking about her parents, and it’s just as important as her own experiences.
The National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands (abbreviation: NSB) was a Dutch political party that existed from 1931 to 1945. The NSB adhered to the ideology of National Socialism, presented itself not as a party but as a movement based on an anti-democratic attitude, and functioned as a collaboration party during the German occupation of the Netherlands in the Second World War.
One of their slogans was “Freedom, Justice, Welfare.”
Some of their members learned that Freedom, Justice, and Welfare were not quite what they thought they would be. As part of their collaboration with their German counterparts, the Nazis, members of the NSB were also expected to work in Germany. Following is the text of a letter from someone called Dolly, believed to be the daughter of an NSB family.
Dolly soon learned that the “real” slogan for the NSB should have been “Regrets, disappointment, disillusionment.”
November 19, 1942.
Dear Father and Mother,
Finally some messages from me. However, I have to write too quickly, in between my work. I am fortunate enough to give this letter to a Dutchman who is going on leave tomorrow afternoon for 14 days in Leiden. However, he puts this letter on the bus at Eindhoven station. I hope you get it on Saturday, otherwise on Sunday. Now, I can finally write what I want. Please do not pay any attention to what I have written in my previous letters as they are all lies, and I had to write them.
Dear Father and Mother, I am very nervous—every night, there is chaos. I have already been to the Labor Office here a hundred times, including to the doctor, but everything is in vain. I feel so terribly homesick for home. I only weigh 45 kilos, so I have lost 15 kilos, which says something about my height. Now, there is only one way that you can help me get out of here, and that is only a statement from a doctor from home that I am needed there, can get me out of here. Mother, please be so kind as to try it with Doctor Alphen v.d. Veer.
I’m simply exhausted, if I have to stay here any longer I will go crazy with fear and will definitely commit suicide. You are truly my last hope. I have to thank you for the lovely apples. They were very bruised—but did me good anyway. I’m still in the kitchen, from six in the morning until half past nine in the evening, with fifteen minutes of rest to eat. I’m as weak as a dishcloth. We don’t have any free time at all, even working all day on Sundays. How terribly wrong I was about these people. Now I have to pay for it too. The chef throws one insult after another at me. For example: “You foreigners are not good enough to be dragged around by the hair. We are the master race, now and forever, just swallow that with a calm face.”
If you are successful, Father should go to the Labor Office. I believe they will tell you what is so necessary for an explanation. A telegram works more reliably here. Two Dutch girls have already gotten away this way. I now wait every day for the answer that will save me. Help me, please. I am also so alone here that I can hardly do anything. I feel like a prisoner who is allowed to get some fresh air. Father and Mother do not abandon me now. I know I don’t deserve it. But I really want to make it right. I have to finish now, they are already calling me again. In any case, do not leave anything in your letters that I have written, because it will not get through and is dangerous. So see you soon, but I sincerely hope that I can say, see you again.
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Petrus Antonius Aalders was just a young man who wanted to determine his future.
Petrus was born on April 2, 1924, in Gennep, Limburg, the Netherlands and by trade, was a professional hairdresser. After being called up for the Arbeitseinsatz, forced labour in Germany, he went into hiding in Eindhoven. Now and then, he returned to his parents in the Zandstraat in Gennep. During one of those visits, the Germans were waiting for Peter. He tried to flee and received a gunshot in the knee. After a stay at the penitentiary hospital—he was transferred to Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp, where he was to work as a hairdresser. He died at the camp from typhus. The date of death given is March 31, 1945; Peter died two days before his 21st birthday.
I am passionate about my site and I know you all like reading my blogs. I have been doing this at no cost and will continue to do so. All I ask is for a voluntary donation of $2, however if you are not in a position to do so I can fully understand, maybe next time then. Thank you.
To donate click on the credit/debit card icon of the card you will use. If you want to donate more then $2 just add a higher number in the box left from the PayPal link. Many thanks.
I worked for Philips from 1987 to 1997. It was a company that took great pride in its history. In 1891, mechanical engineer Gerard Philips (1858–1942) and his father—manufacturer, banker and tobacco and coffee trader—Frederik Philips founded the light bulb factory of the same name in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. In 1991, on its 100th anniversary, a book of its history was issued to all employees. However, because we were expecting a profit share bonus rather than a book, many employees threw the book in the bin, as a silent protest, as did I. Looking back, I am sorry I did so, because later on I discovered that Philips had a fascinating history, especially during World War II.
The well-known hand dynamo from Philips was designed by Ir. L.J. Kalff and patented in January 1942. There were more than a million copies of the standard Pinch Cat Flashlight model made.
The principle of the squeeze cat consists of electromagnetic induction. When a magnet rotates in a coil, an induction current occurs in the coil. This current could then be used to light a light. The voltage was 2.5 Volts at 100 mA/0.1A; with the help of a lens, the light from a 2.5 V light bulb could shine in a targeted manner.
During the occupation, 4 models were produced:
Type 7424, aluminum, silver-colored (see image);
Type 7424/03, aluminum, green;
Type 7426, aluminum, beige (due to a lack of aluminum, brass was later used and zinc was used later);
Type 7426 Bi-Jou (the so-called “ladies model”), aluminum. Mainly produced around 1940-1941. With a retail price of 8.75 guilders, it is considerably more expensive than the standard model.
From February 1943 until 2 June 1944, the standard squeeze cats were manufactured by, among others, the camp residents of Camp Vught, including Jewish employees of Philips (the so-called Philips Kommando).
On 18 October 1935, Frits Philips was appointed vice-director and a member of the board of Philips. Learning of the expected occupation of the Netherlands by Nazi Germany in World War II in 1940, his father Anton Philips, young nephew Frans Otten, and other Philips family members escaped from the Netherlands and fled to the United States, taking company capital with them. Frits Philips stayed in the Netherlands. Together they managed to keep the company alive during the war.
From 30 May until 20 September 1943, Philips was held in the concentration camp Vught because of a strike at the Philips factory.
During the Occupation, Philips saved the lives of 382 Jews by convincing the Nazis that they were indispensable for the production process at Philips. Mr. Philips reportedly tried to hire as many Jews as possible and then told the Nazi occupiers they were irreplaceable, a strategy that prevented many of them from being sent to Auschwitz.
Of the 469 Jews employed at the factory, 382 survived the war, according to company history.
Some historians are critical of Mr Frits Philips, they say he played a double role in the war because its factory production contributed to the German war industry also. However, the fact is that anyone who defied the Nazi regime put their life at risk.
Employees of the Philips Kommando had a hard time in Vught, but slightly better than the other prisoners. For example, every day at four o’clock these prisoners received a hot meal from Philips. This meal came to be known as Philiprak. In addition, they were assured of a dry workplace, without much interference from the guards.
Despite this, Vught was still a concentration camp. Like all other camps, life was harsh, maybe less harsh than in other camps, but harsh nonetheless.
On the night of 15th/ 16th January 1944, 74 female prisoners were detained in a cell after they protested against the interment of a fellow prisoner. This was done under the authority of camp commander Adam Grünewald. The room with a surface of 9 m² had a poor ventilation system, and because of that ten women died of suffocation during the 14 hours of imprisonment. The news of this crime quickly got outside the camp and was extensively reported by the Dutch illegal press. This caused a problem for the Nazi leadership in the Netherlands, who were trying to limit such violent incidents in the camp in order not to fuel the resistance in the Netherlands.
On 4 February 1944, Heinrich Himmler visited Camp Vught and the Philips Kommando following the “bunker drama.”
One of the reasons why a Philips factory was established in Vught was partially because on Sunday morning, 6 December 1942, the British Air Force bombed the Philips factories in Eindhoven. They presumed Philips produced parts for German military equipment. Despite the losses—14 of the 93 aircraft crashed—Operation Oyster was a military success. Large parts of the Philips factories are destroyed. It was a different story for the residents of Eindhoven. Bombs that ended up in the wrong place killed 138 people and damaged many buildings, including a hospital.
Many devices, such as razors, flashlights and paper clips, were made here. The production of “critical” radio tubes started because this enabled young Jewish women to come and work at the “safe” Philips Kommando.
The Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara, was the first Japanese diplomat posted to Lithuania, helped a great number of Jews to escape from Lithuania. For that, he received help from The Dutch consul Jan Zwartendijk. He was the director of the Philips plants in Lithuania. On 19 June 1940, he was also a part-time acting consul of the Netherlands. Zwartendijk provided some of the fleeing Jews with documents to travel to Curaçao, a Caribbean island and Dutch colony that required no entry visa, or Suriname, which was also a Dutch colony.
Eppo Gans was a Dutch employee of Philips and, with his brother Gerard, was involved in helping Jewish people in hiding. They were half-Jewish. Gans was arrested on 19 October 1941 and imprisoned in Den Bosch, the Oranjehotel, Camp Vught and from there either to Auschwitz with the so-called Philips Commando or to Sachsenhausen on 3 June or 5 September. He died on 26 February 1945 in Neuengamme.
During the Nazi occupation, Eppo and his older brother Gerard worked as a relief worker for Jewish people in hiding. On 29 October 1941, he was discovered and imprisoned by the SS in the House of Detention in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, where he registered as a Jehovah’s Witness. On 17 February 1942, he was taken to prison at The Hague. Later he was deported to Camp Vught.
Despite the war raging throughout the world—there were still some times to celebrate some events. The celebrations in this post are impressions of New Year’s Eve in New York in 1941 and San Francisco in 1943.
Partiers in New York City on New Year’s Eve, as 1941 turned to 1942.More partiers were in New York City on New Year’s Eve, as 1941 turned 1942.Naval Lieut. and Mrs. E. E. Rodenburg, Lieut. W. E. Petway of the Army and Miss Carolyn Lewis at the St. Francis Hotel, San Francisco, on New Year’s Eve, 1943.Elevated view at New Year’s Eve party at Pepsi-Cola Center at Mason and Market Streets in San Francisco December 31, 1943.
Maniacal dictators tend to develop a sense of paranoia throughout their reign, as was the case with Adolf Hitler.
Hitler was a vegetarian (it is not precisely known when he became vegetarian), but certainly he was throughout World War II. Allegedly, he once commented that he didn’t like to eat lobster because he thought it was cruel how lobsters—cooked alive.
Margot Wölk was a former German secretary. At the age of 24, she fled her bombed-out parental home in Berlin in the summer of 1942 and moved to Groß-Partsch in East Prussia to live with her mother-in-law. Two and a half kilometres to the west was the Führer headquarters, Wolfsschanze. Her husband Karl, whom she had married at the start of the war, was missing in action, presumed dead. She did not plan to become one of the food tasters or Adolf Hitler. She was one of a group of fifteen young women in 1942 who had to test Hitler’s food for toxins at Wolf’s Lair. She was the only surviving witness from this group. The existence of this group of food tasters was unknown until 2013.
Every meal could have been her last. And when she had finished eating the bland vegetarian dishes put before her, 25-year-old Margot Wölk and her young female colleagues would burst into tears because they were grateful still to be alive.
Margot was the only one to survive. All her colleagues were rounded up and shot by the advancing Red Army in January 1945.
There had been rumours that the Allies had plans to poison Hitler. Each day, the women sat around a big table in front of plates heaped with the food prepared for that day, which included rice, noodles, and dumplings, so they didn’t go hungry. Once the confirmation came that the food was safe, it was packed into crates and taken to the main headquarters by members of the SS.
After Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg’s failed 20 July plot in 1944 in the Wolf’s Lair to assassinate Adolf Hitler and remove the Nazi Party from power, they tightened security around the Wolf’s Lair and the food tasters were no longer allowed to stay at home. A vacant schoolhouse was nearby and used for the tasters to board. “We were guarded like caged animals,” Wölk said in an interview. Each morning at 8 a.m., Wölk every morning was woken up by the SS, who shouted “Margot, get up!” from beneath her window. At that time, her only food taste service needed was if Hitler was actually at the Wolf’s Lair.
When the Soviet army was just a few kilometres from the Wolf’s Lair, a lieutenant took her aside and told her, “Go, get out of here!” He put her on a train to Berlin. It saved her life. She saw him again after the war and learned the fate of the other food tasters, shot by the Soviet soldiers.
Her life was saved a second time by a Berlin doctor who took her in after she fled the Wolf’s Lair. When SS soldiers showed up at his practice searching for the fugitive, he lied to them, and they left.
As Wölk returned to Berlin, she fell into the hands of the Soviet Army after the end of the Battle of Berlin. For two weeks, they raped her repeatedly, inflicting such injuries that she was never able to bear children.
A British officer called Norman helped her recover. He went back to Britain after the war. He wrote asking his German girlfriend to join him. But Ms Wölk told him she wanted to wait and find out if her husband Karl was still alive.
In 1946, she reunited with her husband, Karl. His disposition, mentally and physically, was marked by years of war and imprisonment. The married couple lived happily together until he died in 1980.
I am passionate about my site and I know you all like reading my blogs. I have been doing this at no cost and will continue to do so. All I ask is for a voluntary donation of $2, however if you are not in a position to do so I can fully understand, maybe next time then. Thank you.
To donate click on the credit/debit card icon of the card you will use. If you want to donate more then $2 just add a higher number in the box left from the PayPal link. Many thanks.
Before I start the main story, I must tell you about the wider context. About 75% of all Jews in the Netherlands were murdered during the Holocaust. The Netherlands as a country, received understandably a lot of criticism for this and to a great extent, it was justified. However, it is not as a black-and-white issue as some people may think it is. It is not that the Dutch were more anti-Semitic than other Europeans—in fact, in many cases, they were less. Per capita, the Dutch have more Righteous among the nations than any other European country.
The Dutch did have one thing that contributed greaty to the Dutch Holocaust—the most efficient and detailed population register in the world. Which made it very easy for the Nazis to find out where the Dutch Jews lived. Of course, there were also plenty of Dutch who collaborated with the Nazis.
On February 22, 1941, the Germans arrested and deported several hundred Jews from Amsterdam—first to the Buchenwald Concentration Camp and then to the Mauthausen Concentration Camp. Almost all of them were murdered in Mauthausen. The arrests and the brutal treatment shocked the population of Amsterdam. In response, Communist activists organized a general strike for February 25 and were joined by many other worker organizations. Major factories, the transportation system, and most public services came to a standstill. The Nazis brutally suppressed the strike after three days, crippling Dutch resistance organizations in the process. This was the first time that citizens of an occupied country protested publicly against the Nazis. It was also the largest mass protest against the Nazi regime in Europe. The February 1941 General Strike was—an extremely rare instance—where non-Jews collectively risked life and limb for their Jewish neighbors and fellow citizens.
Nine strikers were killed during the suppression by the Nazis, and dozens were injured. Shortly afterward, another 18 were executed. Needless to say, this instilled fear in the Dutch population.
The reprisals did not cease with the strike’s end. The Germans sacked the entire city council. Sybren Tulp, who had served in the colonial army in the Dutch East Indies, assumed control of Amsterdam’s police force
Although the Dutch resistance was crippled by this, it didn’t stop the resistance. Several resistance groups were formed afterward. Jan Thijssen was a member of one of the resistance groups.
Jan was born on December 29, 1908, in Bussum. He was an electrical officer at the PTT (Dutch Post and Telecommunications). He was in charge of tracking down clandestine transmitters. He was himself an enthusiastic radio amateur.
After the Germans invaded the Netherlands, Jan Thijssen soon had the idea of establishing a nationwide radio network to support the underground. In 1942, he contacted the Ordedienst (O.D.), one of the premier nationwide underground organizations led by career officers and military in nature. He presented his plan to the O.D. Chief of Staff, Jr. P.J. Six, who accepted his idea. Thanks to Thijssen’s commitment, a nationwide communication network was all but completed in 1942. In this, he was heavily supported by a chemist, J. Hoekstra, employed by N.V. Philips in Eindhoven and who succeeded in -illegally- acquiring from the factory various parts vital to the radio network with the help of a family member.
Thijssen grew disillusioned when it became clear that the O.D. wished to use his radio network solely for their own purposes. He also felt irritated by the much too passive attitude of the O.D. He advocated a new, nationwide organization to fully occupy itself with active resistance like sabotage and keep in close contact with the Allies. At the end of April 1943, along with six other underground workers, including the Communist D. van der Meer from Amersfoort. he established the R.V.V. (Raad van Verzet, the Council for Resistance in the Kingdom of the Netherlands). Van der Meer resigned a month later and was succeeded by G. Wagenaar, one of the national leaders of the Military Commission, the resistance movement of the Dutch Communist Party.
Another general strike in April and May of 1943, started spontaneously following a notification by German General Christiansen to the effect that all former Dutch military personnel be returned to imprisonment as POWs caused Thijssen to call for a boycott of this measure and to commit sabotage. He was the first to inform London of this strike and his proposed actions through his transmitter.
During 1943 and 1944, the R.V.V. performed liquidations, raided distribution offices and public records, and committed acts of sabotage. However, the objective of the R.V.V. to gain overall leadership within the active resistance was not reached. This was (partly) because the illegally printed C.P.N. ‘De Waarheid’ (Truth) identified itself more and more with the R.V.V., lending the organization an “albeit undeserved” communist aura. The O.D. and the R.V.V. couldn’t agree on matters that caused the Chief Staff of the O.D., Jhr. P. Six to oust Jan Thijssen as Chief of Radio Service of the O.D. There was also much rivalry between the R.V.V. and the Landelijke Knokploegen (L.K.P., National Raiding Parties).
From April 1944 onwards, the R.V.V. maintained radio contact with the London-based Bureau of Intelligence, established through the assistance of Thijssen’s friend and colleague, A.W.M. Ausems, who had been trained in England as a secret agent. July 1944, at Deurne Castle, a meeting took place between the national leaders of the R.V.V. At this meeting, Thijssen proposed an establishment of the Operations Center to be headed by himself. The existing R.V.V. groups had to be transformed into small sabotage groups to be deployed mainly against the German army.
In part aided by local resistance activities, the Allied drive through Western Europe progressed faster than was anticipated. At the end of August, the L.K.P. and the R.V.V. also received weapons by airdrops, and the Allied Supreme Command gave orders for large-scale sabotage acts directed against the Dutch railway system. There was a split between Jan Thijssen’s R.V.V. and Frank van Bijnen’s L.K.P.; the latter was named National Commander of Sabotage within the L.K.P. on August 25th, 1944. Problems were inevitable, and so, on September 12th, the newly appointed commander of the Binnenlandse Strijdkrachten (B.S., Internal Armed Forces), H.R.H. Prince Bernhard ordered the L.K.P., the R.V.V., and the O.D. to start the so-called Delta council to end the rivalry between the various organizations. Colonel Henri Koot was asked to take command of the B.S., and he accepted. He requested to be permitted to set up his HQ in Amsterdam. At that time, however, Jan Thijssen and Frank van Bijnen were heavily involved in underground activities to support the battle for Arnhem, which was in progress at that very moment. Therefore, they were absent from the Delta meeting in Amsterdam. As a result, the O.D. claimed ever more power for itself, something Thijssen could only disagree with. Among other things, he claimed the weapons that had been dropped for himself. He also clashed with Van Bijnen, and a crisis within the B.S. was looming. The disagreement continued for weeks and erupted when Commander Delta Koot relieved Thijssen of his function. A few days later, on November 8th, on the highway between Rotterdam and The Hague, driving a Red Cross van, Thijssen was arrested by the Nazis. He was taken to a prison in Zwolle. On March 8, 1945 Jan Thijssen was executed. He was one of 116 inmates from various prisons, mainly members of the resistance, who were taken to De Woeste Hoeve and shot in reprisal of the raid on SS-Obergruppenfuhrer und General der Waffen-SS und der Polizei, (General of the SS, Waffen-SS and Police) Hans Rauter.
The prisoners, in five groups of twenty and one of sixteen, were taken to the exact location of the raid near De Woeste Hoeve and shot. The German Oberwachtmeister der Ordnungspolizei (Chief of Police), Helmut Seijffards, who refused to be a member of the firing squad, was executed on the spot as well. Of all the people being led to their execution, Jan Thijssen was the only one attempting to escape, a remarkable example of rebelliousness and resistance to the bitter end. In his prison cell in Zwolle, he wrote a few phrases on the wall: “Ons slaat geen stormwind neder”, “Het hart kent zijn eigen droefheid alleen” en “Spijt, smart en schrik door dun en dik. De dood steeds in ’t zicht na vreselijk gericht. Gestreden onversaagd tot de vrijheidzonne daagt!” (“No storm will bring us down,” “Only the heart knows its own sadness,” and “Regret, grief, and fright against all odds. Always facing death after terrible Judgment. In struggle undaunted ’till the sun of freedom rises.”) While in prison, he painted several murals, including the illustration pictured below.
On September 14, 1945, he was buried with military honors.
It is men like Jan Thijssen—that makes me proud to be a Dutch man.
Prisoner and guard. Varnished at the request of Prince Bernhard
I am passionate about my site and I know you all like reading my blogs. I have been doing this at no cost and will continue to do so. All I ask is for a voluntary donation of $2, however if you are not in a position to do so I can fully understand, maybe next time then. Thank you.
To donate click on the credit/debit card icon of the card you will use. If you want to donate more then $2 just add a higher number in the box left from the PayPal link. Many thanks.
History of Sorts
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