In Holland, at Werkdorp Nieuwesluis, 1938 - 1941.
I crossed the border into Holland. My family
in Holland, uncle Bernard Schuster and aunt Roeschen were waiting for me in Amsterdam when
the train arrived. Temporarily I stayed with them in their home in Hemsteede. Of course
everybody was very upset about events in Germany, especially Jews. - After a few days I
entered the Hachshara and training center "Werkdorp Nieuwesluis" in the north of
Holland in the Arieringermeer for which I had applied in Frankfurt. This was a large
training center for young Jews from Germany and Austria. Its purpose was to train for work
in agriculture, gardening and trades, mainly carpentry and metalwork. Werkdorp Mieuwesluis
was situated in the north of Holland, in the Wieringermeer-polder. "Polder"
means land recovered from the sea by building dams and then pumping out the water between
the dams. Such land is below sea-level. Large parts of Holland are polders recovered from
the sea in the past, and they are now very fertile land for agriculture and gardening. The
Wieringermeer-polder is land that during the 1930s was recovered from the Zuiderzee after
a 30 km long dam, the "Afsluitdijk" had been built to separate the Zuiderzee
from the North sea. The Afsluitdijk connects the provinces North Holland and Friesland.
The Werkdorp was situated on such polder-land. As this land had only recently been
reclaimed from the sea, to make it suitable for agriculture the salty layer on top of the
soil had to be removed and instead normal soil, brought from somewhere else had to be
placed on it. During my first two or three months I also did this work, digging and
removing salty earth. Later I was working in the cabinet-maker's workshop. There were
approx. 360 people in the Werkdorp for training, about 300 young men and sixty girls or
young women. (The great majority were unmarried. ) It was mostly financed by Jewish
organizations abroad, by the American "Joint", "The Central British Fund
for German Jewry" and private contributions. But it had also some income from selling
agricultural products. Most trainees worked in agriculture and gardening, a smaller number
in cabinet making and metalwork. Most girls worked in the kitchen and household.
My cousin from Bingen, Walter Bruck (in
Israel he changed his name to David Barkai) was there already and he was working in
agriculture.
At the end of 1938 my mother wrote from
Frankfurt that fortunately my father had been released from Concentration Camp Buchenwald
(near Weimar) and had returned home. Later she told me that he had been in a shocking
state. My former religion-teacher in school, Dr. Philip, had been together with him in the
camp but had died there. My father was again allowed to work as doctor, but only for
Jewish patients.
In the beginning of 1939, my cousin Lotti
Bruck arrived in the Werkdorp, the sister of Walter Bruck.
As mentioned before, after some time I was
working again as cabinet-maker. The boss in the workshop was Mr. Hirsch. He was a
left-wing German who had escaped from Germany and later when Holland was occupied by the
Nazis he went underground and he managed to survive the war. -
In the Werkdorp we were living in long
wooden barracks. For every six people there was a bedroom and a living room. In each
barrack there were three such units of bed- and living room. Sixteen such barracks were
positioned in a semi-circle around the large community building in which were the large
kitchen, the eating-hall and other rooms. The design of the Werkdorp was intended to be
similar to that of a kibbutz, though the large community building was designed and
constructed as a brick building and in appearance similar to the large farm-buildings all
over the Wieringermeer polder. I was very impressed by the unusual polder-landscape. In
all directions it is completely flat land with ditches at equal distances in both
directions. At certain points the water is being pumped out from the ditches into the sea.
In all directions one could look till the horizon. There were not yet any trees. Very
monotonous landscape, but in the winter we often saw north lights. When there were strong
winds from the north sea or even storms it was almost impossible to walk against the wind.
In the evenings and on free days I walked a
lot in the polder, often to the villages nearby, Wieringerwaard or Slootdorp.
Though we were working hard, life in the
Werkdorp was quite comfortable, especially compared to what was going on in the outside
world. There were also cultural and sports activities. But of course we were living in a
fool's paradise, as everything was already overshadowed by the threat of war. In July 1939
a relatively large illegal emigration to Palestine was organized. The ship
"Dora" had been bought. Originally this ship had been used for transport of
coal. Now its interior had been transformed to transport people. It was intended to bring
with this ship a large number Jewish people from Holland and Belgium illegally to
Palestine. From the Werkdorp about 50 persons took part. Among them was my cousin, Walter
Bruck. He wanted that his sister, Lotti would come too. But she did not want to go so far
away from her mother in Bingen, therefore she refused and she stayed in the Werkdorp. In
July 1939 the Dora left with 365 persons from Holland and 100 from Belgium. It was a
difficult journey but they arrived well in Palestine.
In June 1939 1 had become seriously ill.
With Diphtheria and an ear-infection I was taken to a hospital in Amsterdam where my ear
had to be operated. Therefore it was impossible for me to come with the Dora. My father,
who was very upset about my illness managed to come from Frankfurt to Holland for a few
days to visit me. By being out of Germany he got a more realistic understanding of the
situation and this helped him to make the final decision to emigrate, so that end of July
my parents left Germany to join my Brother Ernst in London. - After having recovered I
returned to the Werkdorp where I continued to work as cabinet-maker. Everyday life in the
Werkdorp was unchanged but it was overshadowed by the threat of the approaching war, and
in September 1939 the Second World war started.
For the time being Holland remained neutral
but on the tenth of May 1940 the German army attacked Holland and after four days of war
the Dutch army capitulated. But before the end of this short war the German air force made
a very heavy attack on Rotterdam, destroying 24000 houses and killing 900 civilians. In
the meantime in the Werkdorp life continued as usual, but soon the Nazis in Holland
started with their anti-Jewish measures. There was also a Dutch Nazi party, the NSB
(National Socialistische Beweging) which cooperated with the Germans. They had their own
terror organization, the WA (weer afdeling), which can be compared to the SA or SS of the
Nazis. Some 25000 Dutch people volunteered to become members of the German Waffen-SS and
fought later with the German army in the east. But they were only a small percentage of
the Dutch population who regarded them as traitors.
During February 1941, the NSB, the Dutch
Nazis, organized provocative marches and demonstrations through the Jewish quarter of
Amsterdam. This lead to heavy street fighting as the Jewish inhabitants, mostly working
class people, fought back violently and soon were joined by Dutch Christian dock workers,
so that the NSB got a terrible beating, the WA man Koot was killed and the others had to
run away. Rauter, the head of the German security forces and his men were of course
furious and on the 23rd and 24th of February 1941 about 400 Jewish men between the ages of
20 to 35 were arrested on the streets and sent to concentration camps. With all these
events the anger of the Dutch population increased and on the 25th of February 1941 the
resistance movements decided on a general strike. Leaflets were distributed on which was
stated that as protest to the terrible persecution of the Jewish population a general
strike had been declared for the 25th. The strike spread all over the country. -- This is
the only time in Jewish history that a non-Jewish population made a general strike to
protest against anti Semitic measures and to help their Jewish fellow-citizens. -- Soon
the Germans brought in special SS-troops and this strike and protests were suppressed
rigorously. Many strikers and organizers were arrested, executed or sent to concentration
camps.
Of course in the Werkdorp we were very
excited about all these events but we were not affected by them directly, and in the
meantime life continued as usual. But all this came to a sudden end when on Thursday
morning the 20th of march 1941 seven buses arrived and remained standing nearby. Some
Germans were sitting inside dressed in civil. Later in the early afternoon arrived a
special car with the commander of the Gestapo Willy Lages, who was dressed in his SS
uniform. He went to the office of the Werkdorp and demanded Mr. Kemmeren to come to the
office. (Mr A. C. Kemmeren was the Dutch boss of agriculture in the Werkdorp, also in
charge of agricultural training, and as such directly responsible to the local
administration of the Wieringermeer.) Lages told Kemmeren that all Jews of the Werkdorp
would be taken away immediately. But Kemmeren protested against this and argued that the
agricultural production in the Werkdorp was essential for the food supply in the country.
By taking away those who were working in agriculture, all agricultural production would be
interrupted. After some discussion Lages agreed that sixty trainees who were working in
agriculture could stay for the time being but all the others would be taken away
immediately. Mr. Kemmeren had now the unpleasant task to choose sixty of the Jewish
trainees to stay. As I did not work in agriculture I had to go with most others but my
cousin Lotti Bruck was chosen to stay.
