(1/8) On 19-04-1862 Helena Seijffers, or Leentje as she was called, was born in Den Bosch. She and her family moved in 1886 to Uden. She worked as a maid with Jewish families throughout the Netherlands. She remains unmarried.
📷Leentje on the right with her sister Rosa.
(2/8) From 1912 she continues to live in Uden for good. With her sister Rosa, brother-in-law Bram Wolf and their two children Cato and Louis. When Louis is married and Bram Wolf dies suddenly in 1933, the three women Rosa, Cato and Leentje continue to live in this house.
(3/8) It is 09-04-1943, 10 days before her 81st birthday, when a bus stops before their house. Leentje is picked up. She has difficulty walking. Her briefcase is thrown into the bus and Leentje herself is roughly picked up and pushed into the bus😠
Two neighbors watch it happen.
(4/8) It starts march 1943 when all Jews living in the province of Brabant had to report to camp Vught. On April 9 the time has come for Leentje. She is transported to Vught. But Vught is rapidly becoming overcrowded. So on 08-05-1943 all elderly will be deported to #Westerbork.
(5/8) As 1500 people should be deported all families with more than 3 children are also deported.
A camp inmate writes about this:
Old people, supported among the young. Those who could not walk were brought in wheelbarrows. They stood for 2 hours and were then all loaded.
(6/8) Leentje is admitted in Westerbork to barracks 85, the hospital barracks. But a few days later on 11-05-1943 she was deported to #Sobibor with 1445 other, most elderly and sick, people.
Only one man of this transport survives.
(7/8) Leentje arrives on 14-05-1943 in Sobibor and is immediately gassed. She was 81 years old.😢
In front of the house she lived a stolperstein has been placed.
A more detailed story can be read here in (translated) English.
translate.google.com/translate?dept…
(8/8) Poor Leentje, we will think of you on your birthday and will always remember! 😢💔🕯️✡️
In September 1944 Uden is liberated.
Rosa and Cato miraculously survived the war. Rosa passes away on 17-11-1945.
On the picture, in the doorway, stands Cato.
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