In Amsterdam, March 1941 - February 1943.
Soon we boarded the buses and left, but we
had no idea where we would go. We were almost certain that we would be taken to some
concentration camp. However to our pleasant surprise we were taken to Amsterdam, to the
diamond factory of Ascher in Tolstraat and there we were released.
When I left the building there was a large
crowd of Dutch people assembled, very upset and very sympathetic towards us. Somebody
asked me what had happened and gave me some money. The local Jewish community arranged
accommodation for each of us at Jewish families. I came to the family van Raalte in
Botticellistreet in Amsterdam-south. This was a well-to-do district and they were living
in a small house. There were Mrs. van Raalte, an elderly divorced lady and her daughter
Els. The son, Connie, who was not living with them unfortunately was caught later by the
Nazis and died in Mauthausen.
Next door lived another Jewish family,
Family. Adler with two pretty young daughters, Anieta and Marieke. At that time for Jews
in Holland there was still a relatively normal social life as the Nazis did not yet start
to enforce most of their anti-Jewish laws. For a short time I enjoyed a lot being
introduced by Els and Anita to their many Dutch Jewish and non-Jewish friends. Most of
them were living in the same street or nearby. One of them was Theo Olof who became later
a well-known violinist. This social surrounding was very much different from the one I had
got used to at the Werkdorp and I really enjoyed myself.
When living in the Werkdorp I had had very
little contact with the Dutch surrounding and with Dutch people. The Dutch authorities had
given permission to this training farm on condition that after completion of training
everybody would leave Holland to emigrate to some other country. In the Werkdorp we only
spoke German and we were not encouraged to learn Dutch and there were also no Dutch
lessons. But at family van Raalte I was suddenly living in a complete Dutch surrounding.
Nobody spoke German. I started to learn Dutch and with this Mrs van Raalte helped me a
lot. If it would not have been such a threatening situation it would have been quite
enjoyable. But similar to developments in Germany when the Nazis introduced more and more
anti-Jewish laws together with stepping up their vicious anti Semitic propaganda also here
in Holland by similar measures the Nazis tried now to separate the Jewish population from
the non-Jewish one, especially as according to their race-theory the Dutch were Aryans and
after their victory they intended to make Holland part of the German Reich.
But here in Holland this anti-Jewish policy
was enforced much faster than this had been done in Germany where it had taken about six
years, from 1933 to 1939. This we felt soon in daily life when for Jewish people it became
more and more difficult to live a normal life because of nasty anti-Jewish laws. It became
forbidden for Jews to use public transport, to buy vegetables and fruit and later Jews had
to wear the yellow star. - My cousin Lotti Bruck who had stayed in the Werkdorp moved to
Amsterdam in May 1941 and stayed with a Jewish family also in Amsterdam-south. In June of
that year I moved to family de Vries in Slaakstraat 6 in the same district. I was working
again as cabinet maker to make repairs in Jewish offices and institutions.
At that time there were rumors that we would
be allowed to return to the Werkdorp and that we would be taken back by buses in the same
way as we had been taken to Amsterdam. But I did not really believe these rumors. - On
Wednesday evening the 11th of June 1941 I went together with Lotti to the city-theater of
Amsterdam to see the opera "Per Gynt" by Grieg. It was a beautiful, enjoyable
performance. This was also the last time that I went out together with Lotti. When we
walked back we met some of our friends from the Werkdorp who were quite upset and who told
us that some of our colleagues from the Werkdorp had been arrested by the Gestapo just
now, this evening.
Next day, as usual, I went for lunch to a
small restaurant not far away from where I was living. This was my luck. When I came back
my landlord, Mr. de Vries told me that a few minutes ago police had been there to arrest
me. I left immediately and for a few days I was sleeping at other addresses till it became
known that no further arrests would be made. - This is the background to these events: On
the 14th of May a bomb exploded in a villa inhabited by German officers in
Amsterdam-south, at the corner of Bernard Zweerskade and Schubertstraat. Some weeks later
the telephone-exchange of the German air force at Schiphol-airport was blown up and one
Wehrmacht- soldier got seriously injured. Due to these events it was ordered from Berlin
that in Amsterdam 300 Jewish men between 18 and 35 years old, had to be arrested and had
to be sent to the concentration camp Mauthausen near Linz in Austria. As the Gestapo had
the list of all of us who had been evacuated from the Werkdorp to Amsterdam the arrests
started with us. People were not arrested on the streets but Gestapo dressed as civilians
came to their addresses to arrest them to make it less conspicuous.
Like me some others were lucky not to be at
home, but for everyone whom they did not find at his address they took somebody else. My
friend Hans Bandmann, with whom I had been living in the same room at the Werkdorp, and
who had been living with a Jewish family also was not in. But instead of him they took the
son of that family and they promised that this son would be released if Hans Bandmann
would hand himself over. When Hans returned home later the parents told him this and he
went to the Gestapo to give himself up. They arrested him but the son of that family was
not released and with all the others a few weeks later they were murdered at
Mauthausen.
There were many tragedies. As the
Gestapo-men who came to arrest looked like ordinary civilians some people were not
suspicious. In one case the Gestapo agents came and asked the parents if they could see
their son. The parents agreed and told them that they had also another son. They called
their two sons who were arrested to die in Mauthausen. These poor parents could never
forgive themselves their mistake and soon afterwards they committed suicide.
Concentration camp Mauthausen was situated
in the Austrian Alps near Linz at the site of a quarry. Prisoners had to work there very
hard in the quarry, often carrying heavy pieces of rock up the mountain. Also many
non-Jewish prisoners died there of exhaustion, brutal treatment and bad conditions. But
Jewish prisoners were in a special commando. In this commando nobody was allowed to live
longer than two to three weeks. The Nazis in Holland spread the news among the Jewish
population that nobody would ever survive Mauthausen. They did this in order to frighten
people so that they would not disobey orders of the Nazi authorities.
There are detailed reports about what had
happened to those who were taken to Mauthausen. The reports are from non-Jewish prisoners
who were there at the time and saw it from nearby. 148 steps had been hewn into the steep
mountain face. Usually Prisoners had to climb up these stairs with heavy pieces of rock on
their back. But the Jewish prisoners from Holland on the first day after their arrival
were forced to slide down this very steep mountain without using the stairs. Many died and
others got seriously injured. The remainder were beaten brutally, some where shot and
some, holding hands with each other jumped together from the mountain, sometimes in groups
of ten, to die together. Those who still had survived died at work, carrying heavy rocks
up the steep mountain or were murdered by specially cruel guards.
We in Holland did not know this. But soon
letters arrived and postcards which were written in such a desperate way that we realized
that something terrible was going on. Then arrived death reports where causes of deaths
were given: "Auf der Flucht erschossen" (shot when trying to escape), heart
failure, stroke and all kinds of lies. Eventually death reports arrived of all the 57 from
the Werkdorp who had been sent to Mauthausen.
For us in Amsterdam life continued as usual.
I found another job and started to work as cabinet maker in a factory for shop furniture,
at "Kloosterman,. fabriek voor Winkelbetimmeringen" in Amsterdam-west. In the
meantime more anti-Jewish laws had been enacted. Jews had to wear the yellow star and also
in our identity cards was shown a large J, to show that the bearer of this card was
Jewish. Besides many other things it was also forbidden for Jews to use public transport.
Therefore I could not use the tram to go to work but every morning I had to walk to my
work, about one hour's walk. There were quite often raids at daytime and also at night. A
few times, when I was going to work suddenly these large police vans arrived and Grune
Polizei (German police in green uniforms) or Gestapo in civil or Dutch police started to
check people, to look for their identity cards and arrested mostly Jews or anybody looking
for them suspiciously. People on the street implored me to take off this dammed star, what
I did sometimes to hide behind some door. Also at work my colleagues were very nice to me.
In the house in the Slaakstraat where I was living my room was in the Attic. From there I
could go easily on the flat part of the roof and from there into the sloping roof by
entering a small roof window. There on the ceiling beams of the room below I had put some
planks, blankets and a cushion. When at night I heard that there was a raid I left my room
and went to hide there and to sleep till it was over. Later people who were living below
complained that they had heard some coughing above them.
The general situation deteriorated. More and
more raids took place as Dutch resistance to the German occupation intensified. Also Dutch
workers were forced to go to Germany to work in German industry. It was a time of great
uncertainty. Already in Germany I had been a member of the "Werkleute", a
Zionist youth organization. I was also member of the "Hechaluz". The world
organization of the Hechaluz had been founded 1921 with its headquarters in Warsaw. Its
aim was to train and to prepare young Jewish people to be workers in Palestine, often by
establishing training farms and professional schools e. g. the Werkdorp, so that after
some time of training these young people would emigrate to Palestine. Due to the Nazis
Jews in central Europe were suddenly under enormous pressure to learn to work in
agriculture or to learn crafts to be able to emigrate. Therefore the activities of the
Hechaluz had increased a lot. Also in Holland there were now many Hachsharot, though the
Werkdorp had probably been the largest. However the Werkdorp was not under Zionist control
but it was run by Dutch Jewish organizations and by the Dutch authorities, though the
Hechaluz took- part in its running. Many of the trainees of the Werkdorp had emigrated to
countries outside Europe, but also to Palestine. -There were smaller training-schools for
younger people of school age, for youth aliyah, one of them was in Loosdrecht (near
Hilversum) with 60 trainees living there. Their age was between 15 & 17 and they had
school lessons and they were also taught crafts and gardening. In June - July 1942 I
traveled every day to Loosdrecht to teach there cabinet making in their small workshop.
In July 1942 started mass deportations of
Jews from Holland. Jews received orders from the Gestapo to assemble at certain places in
order to travel from there to the east "for work". In Amsterdam they had to
assemble at the main railway station. Among the first who received these orders was my
cousin Lotti Bruck. - Lotti's mother, my aunt Lili had been deported some time earlier
from her home in Bingen am Rhein, Germany, to the east, somewhere in Poland or Russia.
From there she had sent some letters to Lotti. In these letters she wrote that she was
working as a nurse and that conditions were not too bad. Unfortunately Lotti believed this
and she hoped by following the call-up and by traveling to the east she might have a
chance to meet her mother and to stay with her. Therefore she rejected offers by Dutch
people to go into hiding and she was transported to the east from where she never
returned, the same as her mother, my aunt Lili. Before leaving I still saw her, we
discussed it but she would not change her mind. Those who went on transport were sent to
the camp Westerbork in Holland where they stayed for a short time till they were sent on
to the east.
In spring 1940 the German army had occupied
Holland when after four days of fighting he Dutch army had been defeated. At the beginning
the official Jewish authorities in Holland tried to cooperate with the new rulers in the
hope that by complying with their laws and orders they would be left alone and they
thought that this policy was in the best interest of the local Jewish population.
Therefore they were also opposed to any illegal activities. Obviously they did not realize
the seriousness of the situation and also after having been law-abiding citizens all their
lives for most of them, especially for the older ones, it was almost unthinkable to act
contrary to the law and to take part in illegal activities. - However after the
Mauthausen-arrests and the death-reports we realized that sooner or later we would have to
live with false papers as Christians to escape being arrested and deported. I took lessons
to improve my Dutch, especially my pronunciation in order to be able to live with false
papers as a Dutch citizen. The Germans had in the meantime established the
"Joodenraad" (Jewish council) as highest Jewish authority and the various Jewish
organizations as hachshara organizations and welfare organizations were now supervised by
the Joodenraad. The Nazis used the Joodenraad to facilitate their anti Jewish policy.
Unfortunately those in this organization still thought that by working with the German
authorities they could be of some help to the Jewish population what was a serious
mistake. Also by the Dutch underground organizations which acted against the Nazis the
Joodenraad was strongly criticized as the lengthened arm of the Gestapo. However the
leading members of the Hechaluz realized soon that only by illegal means it would be
possible to resist the Nazis and to save Jewish lives.
The critical moment arrived when in July
1942 all-out deportations of Jews started for the so-called "Arbeitseinsatz"
(labor service) in the east. The Hechaluz Underground Movement started to become active.
Its main activity was to provide false papers and to find places of hiding for those of
its members who refused to obey the German call-up orders. They also tried to find ways to
leave Holland illegally and to escape via Belgium and France to Spain. In this endeavor
they got much help from non-Jewish Dutch resistance groups, but mostly from the
"Westerweel group". This group was named after Joop Westerweel, a Christian
Dutch schoolteacher and humanist whose underground group had close relations with many of
our leaders in the Hechaluz and who did a lot to save Jews. Unfortunately in 1944 Joop
Westerweel was caught by the Nazis and executed.
As mentioned before, during June-July 1942 I
had been teacher for carpentry at the youth-alyah home at Loosdrecht. I had been traveling
there every day from Amsterdam. Beginning August I was told not to come there anymore. For
at that time 15 youths had received orders to report for transport to the east. The
teachers of this youth-alyah home decided to defy the German orders and to go into hiding.
Within 3 to 4 days all 60 children staying at Loosdrecht disappeared. - When a few days
later the Gestapo arrived at the youth-alyah home they found an empty house. It was very
difficult to find hiding-places for such a large number at such short notice. This was
only possible due to the help of the Westerweel-group. This was the Westerweel- group's
first operation. Thereafter their operations expanded: They supplied documents, hiding
places and smuggled Jews over the borders, via Belgium and France to Spain.
Life in Amsterdam became more tense and more
difficult every day. It seemed like a nightmare when friends and acquaintances suddenly
disappeared.
Some went into hiding and fortunately a part
of them survived the war. But many others had been caught and were sent to the east never
to return.
My own family in Holland, uncle Bernard
Schuster and aunt Roeschen with their two children had been taken away. The same aunt
Stephy with her two children, who had been living in Amsterdam-south. -- My friends and
former neighbors from Botticellistraat disappeared. The old lady, Mrs. van Raalte had died
naturally a short time before these events. Els van Raalte went into hiding and survived.
(She lives now in Vlissingen. ) Also Theo Olof went into hiding and survived. He is now
chief-violinist in the Amsterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. Mr. and Mrs. Adler with their
younger daughter Marieke went into hiding in Amsterdam. The elder daughter, Anieta was
sent to a farm in the country where she stayed with the farmer and his family. But Mrs.
Adler wanted the family to be united. Therefore she persuaded Anieta to return to
Amsterdam to stay with them. This was a tragic mistake. Because soon afterwards they were
betrayed, arrested and sent to the east where all of them were murdered. In the farm
Anieta would have had a better chance to survive.
In general, Amsterdam was a bad place to
hide. There were too many spies, traitors, NSB and German police. Also in Amsterdam were
the headquarters of the Gestapo from where they organized the call-ups, raids and
transports to the east. There were lots of rumors, partly probably spread by the Nazis. In
one case it was told that only Ashkenazi Jews would be called up, whereas Sephardi Jews
were exempted. My teacher who gave me Dutch lessons, a young Sephardi-Jewish woman told me
this. However some time later suddenly also Sephardi Jews were called up and also my
teacher was sent to the east never to return. (At the time of her call-up she had been
pregnant.) )- There was a Dutch Christian woman who claimed that she was clairvoyant (that
she could see what was happening far away or in future.) She told parents whose sons had
died at Mauthausen that this was not true, that their sons were alive and well and that
she saw them working happily in the east. For this information she took money. - But she
was an agent and informer of the Gestapo and later she was killed by the Dutch resistance.
At that time it was good to be alone and
independent. Those with family had even much more to worry about. Also I was lucky that my
close family were abroad and relatively save. Since the first call-up orders had arrived
in July 1942 it was a difficult decision for individuals or families to decide if to
comply with these orders or to try to hide or to escape, especially as the majority of
Jews in Holland believed the German lies that in the east they only would have to work
under relatively normal conditions. They did not realize the catastrophic consequences of
compliance. Unfortunately most of the leaders of the Jewish organizations advised to
comply with the call-up orders and were against illegal activities. Some told to those who
had been called up: "Now you must prove that you are a proud Jew, that you don't run
away from your Jewish fate. By going with these transports you can also help others."
Therefore with the first transports went many from the Werkdorp, including my cousin
Lotti. - After the Mauthausen arrests of former Werkdorp members in June 1941 many Jewish
families in Amsterdam who had taken in young men from the Werkdorp got frightened and did
not want them anymore in their homes. Therefore two houses in central Amsterdam were
rented by Jewish organizations where they could stay for the time being: One at Plantage
Franschelaan 13 and one at the Nicolaas Witsenkade.
Together with others engaged in underground
activities we made false identity cards. These were identity cards of people who had
disappeared or died. We removed the photos on them and replaced them with the photos of
the new owner. A girl who was very good in drawing drew the stamp on it with Indian ink.
My false papers I kept with me so that in case of being called up I could disappear
immediately.
In the meantime also Dutch non-Jewish men
were called up for work in Germany. To avoid this many went into hiding. There arose now a
situation in which any man on the street could be stopped for checking his papers and he
could be sent to Germany for work. It became more and more difficult to find places for
hiding, for Jews and non-Jews alike. Holland is a small, densely populated country with no
mountains or large forests to hide. The leaders of our Hechaluz underground group tried
all the time to find new ways to hide people who refused to comply with the German call-up
orders. At the beginning of 1943 there were no places for hiding. Those who had tried to
escape to Switzerland had been caught on the way or at the border.
Our leaders at the time, Gideon Drach, Kurt Hanneman and
Kurt Reilinger proposed to us another plan: To go to Germany disguised as Dutch workers. I
myself and four others accepted this proposal. With some Dutch officials employed at the
labor exchange who were prepared to help us in this matter it was agreed that the five of
us would join a transport of Dutch workers on their way to Germany. Regularly such groups
of Dutch workers, who had been called up for work in Germany by the labor exchange left by
train. They had already received their papers from their local labor exchange. However it
was agreed that we would receive our papers on the platform of the railway station at
Hangelo, this is one of the last stops before the German border. These papers had been
made out in the names of our false identity cards. But we did not have Dutch passports.
This was a serious mistake as we found out later, when it was too late. -My name was now
Christian Snel, born in Bandung which is on Java, one of the islands which at that time
were part of the Dutch East Indies. As profession was shown cabinet-maker. During this
last week in Amsterdam, in February 1943, I was living at the Plantage Franschelaan, one
of the hostels rented for us by Jewish organizations, as mentioned before. I shall never
forget our last evening meal there.
