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The Last Bris in the Hague under Nazi Rule
In the middle of April 1912 I attended a so called “Bris”,(circumcision) of a child of a dear friend of mine, Mr. Max Finkel. He originally came from Poland, then when Hitler got into power, moved to the Netherlands, to Arnhem. When it was feared that the Germans would also invade the Netherlands he moved behind the “waterline” (water defense) to the Hague. He played an active part in the activities of the Jewish Community, especially in connection with the teenage boys and girls. Mr. Max Finkel had many children. This is what he put on paper and presented to me: Bedomayich-chayi Springtime of the year 1942 was a sad…
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Rabbi Jona Glauber
The story of Rabbi Jona Glauber of Brooklyn, New York, originally from Hungary, whose wife and 8 children were brutally murdered by the Nazis, mirrors the Biblical story of Hanna and her sons. From the Memoirs: 1948. Rabbi J. Glauber is the head of the “Jeshieve” in Leiden, Holland and teaches about 15 boys. He originally came from Budapest, Hungary. When the Germans invaded this country in 1944, all Jews were deported. He and his family were sent to Auschwitz; his wife and 8 children (3 boys and 5 girls) from the age of 17 years down to 1 year were put to death. Rabbi J. Glauber stayed in Auschwitz…
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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…
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Rita the Angel
Rita Boijenk, was a Righteous Gentile living on the same street in the Hague, who assisted the Frankenhuis family during the war years by arranging hiding for 13 persons, and visitations between the family members offering emotional support. While the Frankenhuis family was incarcerated in the camps, she managed to elude her direct connection and was instrumental in helping save them from deportation to Auschwitz via the Jewish Council. She earned the title “Angel” because of her devotion in saving the lives of the Frankenhuis family. From the Memoirs: This is where Rita (Boijenk) lived. An upper floor apartment, in the Van Alkemadelaan. A number 33, a house nothing but…
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Orphan raised by Christians seeks history
Recovering Lost Jews THE FRANKENHUIS COLLECTION1914-1918 1939-1945 M. FRANKENHUIS221 WEST 82ND STREETNEW YORK 24. N. YENDICOTT 2-6758 March 24, 1966 285 Riverside DriveNew York, N. Y. 10025 Dear Rabbi Lewin: I read with interest in the “American Examiner of March 17, 1966 the report of your address to the Commission on Human Rights of the United Nations concerning the problem of Jewish children who were raised as Christians, after being orphaned by the Nazis. As a Dutch Jew who, with my wife and two children, miraculously survived the holocaust including the torments of concentration camps and other forms of persecution, I am vitally concerned with this problem. I was among…
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Saving an Orphan from transport to Auschwitz
“He who saves a single life, is as if he saves an entire world”. Mishnah Sanhedrin 4:9; Babylonian Talmud Tractate Sanhedrin 37a MAURICE FRANKENHUIS221 WEST 82ND STREETNEW YORK 24, N. Y.ENDICOTT 2-6758 January 1, 1967 Dear Hetty, The story I have to tell you is no mystery, and you are well acquainted with its outlines. Besides information from many sources, you have received documents and reports from me from time to time. It is a story that belongs to all the world. In the vast, human drama that was enacted on the European stage during the years 1939 to 1945, the innocent, the weak, and the defenseless became the immortal…
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Get Out
Later in the history books, people will probably read that it was maybe a minority of the Germans who wanted war. But I want to tell these people: do not believe it. I know. Read my books, circulars, diaries. This is the real thing and – Maybe? – the historic books are fairy tales, a distortion of the facts in the years 1933…… And I should like to tell this to my people and their offspring. If there ever is a persecution again, when a minority is treated again as an inferior individual, it is the duty of every responsible person to… get out… clear out… And if it is…
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Going into Hiding
Rita, the good soul, the “Angel” as my mother calls her, stands in front of her house, knowing the time about which I would leave and accompanying mea little way on my road to lighten the heavy gait. “Here is something for the nerves” when she pushes a little bottle into my hand and dropping a few pills in one of my side-pockets.” When you enter the lodgings, you take a tablet.” How good it is at this moment to have a human being who has got pity on you, to relieve you from your pains and what is more, to hear her prophecies “that this spook will only last…
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Hitler’s Suite at Hotel Dreesen, Bad Godesberg
A visit to Bad Godesberg and interview with Fritz Dreesen On my way in Bonn, where I had the opportunity to speak to Chancellor Dr. Konrad Adenauer for a very short period, receiving his autographed photograph through the cordiality of his Secretary Ministerialdirigent Herr Selbach, I decided to go to Bad Godesberg/Rhein, to the Hotel Dreesen, where Chamberlain and Hitler signed the treaty which proved so fatal to the entire world. It was here that Chamberlain was fooled by Herr Hitler – “PEACE IN OUR TIME.” The owner of the Hotel, Fritz Dreesen, gave me permission to occupy the suite where Hitler stayed from 1926 on; the Hotel later became…
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Prince Louis Ferdinand
Three Hohenzollern, three S.A. Men! On March 1934 the German Ex-crown prince Wilhelm let himself be photographed at the castle Caecilian-Hof with both of his sons. At that time Hitler was in power for a good year. The ex-crown prince (middle) on this occasion was wearing the uniform of motor- S.A.- man, Prince Hubertus (left ) the uniform of “Sturmfuhrer ” (Com.commandant with the S. A.) Reserve I and prince Friedrich (right) that of ” Oberscharfuhrer ” of the Reserve I. The sons were holding a higher office (order) than their father. The picture was published of the son of Kaiser Wilhelm II, the crown prince together with his 2…