The Other Schindlers (19 page)
Read The Other Schindlers Online
Authors: Agnes Grunwald-Spier
Suze was saved by a Resistance group called NV-Groep (
Naamloze Vennootschap
) which was based in Amsterdam, also on the Ruyschstraat. It was part of a network of four groups that rescued Jewish children. They were
organised
by a German Jew called Walter Süsskind, a former employee of Unilever who lost his job because he was Jewish. He was put in charge of a deportation centre which was opposite a kindergarten and Süsskind devised a scheme for smuggling Jews through the kindergarten. Over eighteen months he saved over 1,000 children and many adults. Unfortunately, he and his family were sent to Auschwitz where he died. It is believed he was perceived as a collaborator due to the relationships he developed with the Nazis to divert their attention from his activities; he was attacked by Dutch Jews in the camp. His life has been celebrated in a film,
Secret Courage
.
157
The members of NV-Groep had to ask around to find foster families. One of the members, Annemarie van Verschuer, described how much she hated the task: ‘I always found it frightening … I found it more frightening than taking the children from Amsterdam to Heerlen, for you never knew how the people would react. And like a door-to-door salesman you had to persuade people to take in a child.’
158
There is some confusion in the paperwork as to who brought Suze to Geldermalsen on 19 June 1944. It is believed it was Truus Vermeer. She was a daughter of the Vermeer family based in Brunssum, in the south. Her whole family was involved in the Dutch Resistance and worked closely with the NV-Groep.
The NV-Groep were particularly involved with moving children. They moved them from Amsterdam to Brunssum and its environs, where they were hidden with families. Later they were moved to other areas such as Betuwe (Geldermalsen area) and the Achterhoek (Nijverdal area). Ed has not been able to establish what
happened to Suze from June 1943 to June 1944, but he assumes she was in hiding with another family. Arleen told me that Tiny told her (via Skype) that the first family did not want to keep Suze because she wet the bed. Apparently, Tiny’s father said he did not care because Tiny, at 15, still wet the bed.
159
The NV-Groep supported families hiding Jewish children with money and food cards and this involved visiting the families. It was Truus Vermeer who did this for Suze and she also checked that Suze was being treated properly.
After July 1945, Suze spent six months with another family in Geldermalsen and then she stayed with an aunt. She was then moved to her Aunt Klara Hamerslag – her mother’s sister – who had survived the war with her two sons. She remarried, became Klara Aarderwerk, and in 1949 formally adopted Suze. The Netherlands introduced legislation in 1949 that anyone who had not returned from the war was officially declared dead. As a result, there were many marriages and adoptions and other legal issues resolved. In November 1953 the whole family, including Suze, emigrated to the USA.
160
Arleen Kennedy told me how she had known about her mother being hidden by the Schoens since she was a little girl. She wrote that in 1964, when she was 5, they went to visit Tiny in Holland and she thinks she learnt about it then. She confirmed Suze did not like to talk about the war in detail and she never said exactly what happened to her family. Arleen presumed she did not know. It was Ed’s research that gave Arleen and her sons, Craig (1988) and Jason (1990), the information about her family’s fate. As a result, Arleen returned to Amsterdam in March 2009 and, during a visit to the Jewish Museum, saw a photo display of rescued Jewish children and recognised a photo of Suze which the museum had not identified. Tiny immediately said: ‘that is Suze’.
Arleen concluded: ‘I love Tiny and her whole family so much. They are amazing, kind, loving people. I am grateful to have them in my life.’
161
1
. Olympia Barczynska, letter to author, 31 August 2000. Olympia is Józef’s niece.
2
. Olympia Barczynska,
Józef Robert Barczynski
, biographical notes dated 2 March 2001 sent to the author, p. 2.
3
. Ibid., p. 2.
4
. Olympia Barczynska, telephone conversation with the author, 11 March 2001.
5
. Barczynska, biographical notes, p. 2.
6
. Barczynska, letter to author, 31 August 2000, p. 3.
7
. Ibid., p. 4, and e-mail of 6 January 2010.
8
. Barczynska, biographical notes, p. 2.
9
. File No 5846 on Józef Barczynski at Yad Vashem.
10
. Barczynska, e-mail to the author, 6 January 2010.
11
. Milton Gendel, e-mail to the author, 29 December 2003.
12
. Vivo Vivanti, ‘The Righteous are not Forgotten’ in
Shalom
(the Journal of the Jewish Community of Rome), No 12, December 2002, p. vi of insert. Translated by Phil Jacobs of Nottingham, January 2003.
13
. File No 9707 from Yad Vashem’s Commission for Selecting Righteous Among the Nations, 2002.
14
. Ibid.
15
. Ibid.
16
. Ibid.
17
. Duchess Clotilde Capece Galeota, e-mail to the author, 6 November 2002.
18
. Milton Gendel, e-mail to the author, 27 February 2003.
19
. Vivanti, ‘The Righteous are not Forgotten’, December 2002.
20
. Ibid.
21
. Edith Hahn-Beer,
The Nazi Officer’s Wife
(London: Little Brown, 2000), p. 151. Apparently, Plattner did this several times so he must have thought it was the right thing to do. He was responsible for checking the papers proving racial background of anyone who wanted to get married: telephone conversation with Edith’s daughter, Angela Schluter, 4 July 2003.
22
. Angela Schluter, e-mail to the author, 17 August 2003, and telephone conversation of 12 January 2010.
23
. Hahn-Beer,
The Nazi Officer’s Wife
, p. 153.
24
. Angela Schluter, telephone conversation with the author, 12 January 2010.
25
. Edith Hahn-Beer, obituary in the
Jewish Chronicle
, 7 May 2009.
26
. Angela Schluter, telephone conversation with the author, 4 July 2003.
27
. Lewis Smith, ‘Last dream of Jewish survivor who fell in love with a Nazi’,
The Times
, 24 May 2004, p. 11.
28
. The information for this section comes mostly from Video No 639204 of the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, recorded on 13 May 1998 in Jerusalem by Betty Eppel.
29
. David Eppel, ‘Key to Righteousness’ in
Jewish Chronicle
, 28 July 2000.
30
. Ibid.
31
. Betty Eppel, e-mail to the author, 10 February 2004.
32
. Victor Guicherd, letter to Yad Vashem, c. 1980. Translated from French by David Eppel.
33
. Betty Eppel, notes of telephone conversation with the author, 6 March 2004.
34
. Eppel, ‘Key to Righteousness’, 28 July 2000.
35
. Betty Eppel, e-mail to the author, 24 February 2004.
36
. Betty Eppel, notes of telephone conversation with the author, 1 March 2004.
37
. Ibid., 19 December 2009.
38
. Manli Ho, ‘Dr Feng Shan Ho’, unpublished memoir, 2001, p. 1.
39
. Gail Lichtman, ‘The People’s Hero’,
Jerusalem Post
, 1 March 2004, p. 2.
40
. Mark O’Neil, ‘The Angel of Austria’s Jews’,
South China Morning Post,
2000.
41
. Ibid.
42
. Manli Ho, unpublished memoir, p. 2.
43
. Marion Koebner, ‘Charles Peter Carter’, AJR Information, Vol. LV, No 12, December 2000, p. 2.
44
. Otto Fleming, e-mail to the author, 1 July 2004.
45
. Otto Fleming, telephone conversation with the author, 1 July 2004.
46
. Lotte Marcus, ‘Letter to ex-Viennese Shanghailanders’, 8 August 2003, p. 2, www.chgs.umn.edu/Visual__Artistic_Resources/Diplomat_Rescuers, accessed 5 September 2004.
47
. Manli Ho, unpublished memoir, p. 3.
48
. Ibid.
49
. Marcus, ‘Letter to ex-Viennese Shanghailanders’, p. 2.
50
. Manli Ho, unpublished memoir, p. 4.
51
. Ibid., p. 5.
52
. Anthea Lawson, ‘Ho the hero in line for Israeli award’,
The Times
, 10 February 2000.
53
. Manli Ho, e-mail to the author, 22 June 2004, based on a speech entitled ‘Remembering my Father, Dr Ho Feng Shan’, p. 1.
54
. Ibid., p. 2.
55
. Manli Ho, unpublished memoir, p. 5.
56
. Manli Ho, e-mail to the author, 22 June 2004, p. 1.
57
. Lichtman, ‘The People’s Hero’, p. 1.
58
. Manli Ho, e-mail to the author, 22 June 2004, p. 2.
59
. Manli Ho, unpublished memoir, p. 5.
60
. Manli Ho, ‘Remembering my father, Dr Ho Feng Shan’ in
China Daily
, 26 September 2007.
61
. Lichtman, ‘The People’s Hero’, p. 2.
62
. Ellen Cassedy, ‘We are all Here: Facing History in Lithuania’, pp. 77–85, Bridges Association 2007, www.judaicvilnius.com/repository/dockumentai/cassedy_bridges.pdf?, accessed 27 December 2009.
63
. Most of this narrative is based on the writer’s interview with Irena Veisaite in Huddersfield on 23 December 2000.
64
. Michail Erenburg and Viktorija Sakaité,
Hands Bringing Life and Bread
, Vol. 1 (Vilnius: 1997), p. 61. * Irena has corrected this translation to read ‘love to your fellow man’, e-mail to the author, 6 November 2001. ** Paneriai is a town 9–10km from Vilnius, where all the Jews from Vilnius were killed by the Nazis. There is a Holocaust memorial there now.
65
. Irena Veisaite, letter to the author, 23 July 2003.
66
. A
gymnasium
in Europe is the equivalent of a sixth-form college or grammar school for 14–18 year olds in preparation for university. It comes from ancient Greece where the term was used for both intellectual and physical education. In Britain it is used exclusively for physical activity.
67
. Irena Veisaite, interview with the author, 23 December 2000.
68
. Cassedy, ‘We are all Here: Facing History in Lithuania’, p. 78.
69
. www.humanrights.gov.sc/stockholmforum/2001/page1272.html, accessed 26 December 2009.
70
. Cassedy, ‘We are all Here: Facing History in Lithuania’, p. 79.
71
. Ibid., p. 80.
72
. Erenburg and Sakaité,
Hands Bringing Life and Bread
, p. 61.
73
. Iris Origo,
Images and Shadows: Part of a Life
(London: John Murray, 1998), p. 88.
74
. Richard Owen, ‘To the Tuscan manor born’ in
The Times
(Register), 25 July 2002.
75
. Origo,
Images and Shadows
, p. 226.
76
. Ibid., pp. 228–9.
77
. Ibid., p. 227.
78
. Amy Gottlieb,
Men of Vision: Anglo-Jewry’s Aid to Victims of the Nazi Regime 1933–1945
(London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1998), p. 99.
79
. Walter Block, ‘Anna Essinger and Bunce Court School’ in
Gathered Stories: Commemorating the Kindertransport
(Friends House, 2008).
80
. Frank Auerbach, letter to author, 30 November 2009.
81
. Robert Hughes,
Frank Auerbach
(London: Thames and Hudson, 1990), p. 17. A ‘stetl’ is meant to be ‘shtetl’ – the Yiddish word for a small town in Eastern Europe predominantly occupied by Orthodox Jews. These towns were destroyed by the Holocaust. The inhabitants are often contrasted with the urbane, assimilated Jews who predominated in Central Europe.
82
. Hughes,
Frank Auerbach
, p. 18.
83
. Origo,
Images and Shadows
, p. 228.
84
. Harris and Oppenheimer,
Into the Arms of Strangers
(London: Bloomsbury, 2000), p. 277.
85
. Louise London,
Whitehall and the Jews, 1933–1948: British Immigration and the Holocaust
(Cambridge: CUP, 2000).
86
. Iris Origo,
War in Val d’Orcia: An Italian War Diary, 1943–1944
(London: Allison and Busby, 1999), p. 25.
87
. Origo,
Images and Shadows
, p. 241.
88
. Origo,
War in Val d’Orcia
, p. 100.
89
. Ibid., p. 101.
90
. Benedetta Origo, e-mail to the author, 1 August 2002.
91
. Ibid., 28 September 2002.
92
. Ibid., 30 September 2002.
93
. Caroline Moorehead,
Iris Origo: Marchesa of Val D’Orcia
(London: John Murray, 2000), pp. 215–16.
94
. Lady Margaret Kagan, http://collections.ushmm.org/artifact/image/b00/00/b0000246.pdf, accessed 23 December 2009.
95
. Lady Margaret Kagan, ‘Remembering Vytautas’, unpublished memoir written in the 1990s, given to the author in June 2001, p. 4.
96
. Ibid., p. 7.
97
. Ibid., pp. 7–8.
98
. Stephen Goodell, ‘The Story of Avraham Tory and his Kovno Ghetto Diary’, www.eilagordinlevitan.com.
99
. Kagan, telephone conversation with the author, 1 November 2001.
100
. Kagan, b0000246.pdf, p. 2.
101
. Kagan, ‘Remembering Vytautas’, p. 10.
102
. Ibid., p. 12.
103
. Ibid., p. 13.
104
. Ibid.
105
. Ibid., p. 14.
106
. Ibid., p. 15.
107
. Kagan, b0000246.pdf.
108
. Kagan, pp. 19–20.
109
. Tam Dalyell, obituary for Lord Kagan in
The Independent
, 19 January 1995.
110
. Kagan, letter to the author, 3 July 2001.
111
. Jaap van Proosdij, unpublished memoir dated February 1996, sent to the author in March 2001, p. 6.
112
. Jaap van Proosdij, interview with South African journalist Paula Siler, 4 December 1998, p. 1.
113
. Jaap van Proosdij, telephone conversation with the author, 17 December 2009.
114
. Jaap van Proosdij, letter to the author, 28 December 2003.
115
. Lucy Dawidowicz,
The War Against the Jews
1933–45 (London: Penguin, 1990), p. 438.
116
. Martin Gilbert,
Holocaust Atlas
, p. 106.
117
. Peta Krost, ‘At last, saviour of 240 Jews gets recognition’, interview in
Saturday Star
(South African newspaper), 7 March 1998.
118
. Van Proosdij, interview with Paula Siler, p. 1.
119
. Ibid., p. 2.
120
. Ibid., pp. 2–3.
121
. Ibid., p. 3.
122
. Prof. Shirley Kossick, ‘Pretoria’s Own Righteous Gentile’ in
Pretoria Jewish Chronicle
, August 1994, p. 5.
123
. Krost, ‘At last, saviour of 240 Jews gets recognition’, 7 March 1998.
124
. Ibid.
125
. Ibid.
126
. Van Proosdij, letter to the author, 23 December 2003.
127
. Krost, ‘At last, saviour of 240 Jews gets recognition’, 7 March 1998.
128
. Van Proosdij, interview with Paula Siler, p. 2.
129
. Van Proosdij, letter to the author, 25 March 2001.
130
. Van Proosdij, letter to the author, 4 July 2001.
131
. Krost, ‘At last, saviour of 240 Jews gets recognition’, 7 March 1998.
132
. Van Proosdij, interview with Paula Siler, p. 1.
133
. Van Proosdij, letter to the author, 12 January 2004.
134
. Van Proosdij, interview with Paula Siler, p. 1.
135
. Jewish Agency Press Release, 27 May 2003, www.jafi.org.il/press/2003/may/may27.htm.
136
. John Schoen, letter to the author, 20 January 2001.
