• Medals handcrafted for Princess Beatrix whilst in hiding

    From the Memoirs: A MEDAL FOR PRINCESS BEATRIX For 21 months, our family lived at 185, Galilaestraat, The Hague, all four of us cooped up in one room. We were hidden by trusted friends, whose vigilance postponed the day when we would be caught and sent off to concentration camps, and perhaps even to the gas chambers. In a way, our plight was similar to that of the family of Anne Frank and thousands of others who had no alternative but to stay under cover during the German invasion of Holland which began, without any provocation, on May 10, 1940. All of Holland was stunned by the ruthless acts of…

  • Shawls

    Nazi liquidation of Dutch institutions With the pilfering of the various institutions; well, in the old days it was called in German “klauen” (pilfer), now it is called in German “einnehmen” (take in). Let me use the old way, that is: With the pilfering of the various institutions, like: De Joodsche Invaliede (The Jewish Invalid) in the city of Amsterdam Het Joodsche Weeshuis (The Jewish Orphanage House) of The Hague Het Apeldoornsche Bosch (The Apeldoorn Forst) of Apeldoorn And various others in the country – including very many synagogues – their inhabitants left for an unknown destination somewhere in the East. Suddenly there was an oversupply of shawls, an abundance…

  • Commander Gemmeker

    Maurice Frankenhuis, an inmate at the deportation camp Westerbork in Holland, procured sketches and schematics and clandestine photographs. Commander Gemmecke, now commonly spelled Gemmeker, overseeing Jews being loaded into transport trains at Westerbork concentration camp. The identical scene was captured by two artists: Werner Lowenhardt, an artist, and a photographer – from a different perspective. Notice the identical tree, smoke, and wheelbarrow, and of course, Gemmecke standing with his hands clasped behind his back. Sketch and photograph of Gemmecke in Westerbork Artifacts from the Frankenhuis Collection