(1/n) 127 years ago Truus Meijer was born on 21-04-1896. This time not a victim of the Nazi's but a brave woman who stood up against them.

And by doing that she saved more than 10.000 Jewish children.

And the sad thing is that so many people, even Dutch, never heard of her.
⬇️ (2/n) Truus, who was born as Geertruida, was married to Franciscus Wijsmuller and so became known as Truus Wijsmuller.

It starts in 1933, when Hitler came to power. She travels to Germany to pick up relatives of Jewish acquaintances.
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@AuschwitzMuseum (1/n) This little 4 year 'old' boy was the brother of Eline Regina, born 04-09-1934 (8yr) and Frits Herman, born 18-11-1935 (7yr). They were the children of Salomon born 21-03-1910 and Mirjam Sara nee Micheels, born 02-11-1908.
⬇️ @AuschwitzMuseum (2/n) The family used to live in the Hague.
Parents, Max and Eline were in Westerbork from 25-09-1942 and were 3 days later deported to Auschwitz. They were most likely all gassed on arrival.😢

Frits Herman was not deported on that day.
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(1/n) In 1998 this picture was found when a picture frame was changed. It had been hidden there 60 years ago.
It shows 22 children, in the age of 4-17 year. It was made behind the synagogue in Deventer. Some children are wearing the dreadful star.
⬇️ (2/n) The photo came into the hands of Mr Meier de Leeuw. He is Jewish and was a child before the war and knew some of these children. He himself was already in hiding, otherwise he would have been on the photo
Meier started an investigation to find out more about the children
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@AuschwitzMuseum (1/n) It was 07-05-1934 when Leon (called Lonnie) Zwaap was born. He was the son of Salomon, born 03-01-1906 and Esther Jeannette Zwaap nee Philipse, born 15-02-1913. On 08-05-1936 Lonnie's brother Edward David (called Eddy) was born.
Both children were born in Hilversum.
⬇️ @AuschwitzMuseum (2/n) Salomon was a doctor while Esther was a childcare worker and a singer. They still lived in Hilversum.
In 1942 Salomon was a representative of the Jewish Council. This is probably why he was the first to be arrested.
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@AuschwitzMuseum (1/n) Lia (📷1&2) was the daughter of Julius, who was a baker, born 15-01-1895 and Alice, born 14-05-1895. She had an older sister Rita, born 05-12-1924.
Julius was already deported to Nisko in Poland before the girls and there mother were deported to Theresienstadt.
⬇️ @AuschwitzMuseum (2/n) Lia, and her mother and sister were in Theresienstadt from 30-06-1943. And on 19-10-1944 they were all 3 deported to Auschwitz.

Rita was best friends with another Jewish girl, Vera Rosenzweig. Vera was in Theresienstadt from 30-09-1942, so before the Feiners.
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(1/n) Andrée Geulen was a teacher in a school in Brussels. One day, summer of 1942 some of her students arrived at school with the compulsory yellow star on their clothes. Until that time Geulen hadn't paid attention to the anti-Jewish measures and the persecution of the Jews.
⬇️ (2/n) Having her students marked and humiliated in this way enraged Geulen, and she instructed the entire class – Jews and non-Jews alike - to wear aprons to school, so as to cover the yellow stars.
This first close encounter with the persecution of the Jews convinced...
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(1/n) While reading this book "De jodenvervolging in foto's" (The persecution of the Jews in photos) I read the story of Johannes, or Hannes, Boogaard and his family. Hannes was a deeply religious man, a farmer, who lived in Nieuw-Vennep. He was 75 when the war broke out.
⬇️ (2/n) He lived there with his sons Willem & Theunis and daughter Aagje. 2 of his 9 other children, sons Hannis & Piet, lived nearby.
The resistance of Hannes started early. He was told by the Germans to sow rapeseed, but he refused.
Early 1942 the first person came to hide.
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@AuschwitzMuseum (1/n) Meijer was married to Branca, born 05-04-1887. They had 3 daughters:
> Anna Rosina, born 27-03-1911
> Eva, born 18-11-1913
> Dina, born 26-07-1918
Meijer was born in a poor family. He had to work, from the age of 10, in a pottery factory (📷1).
⬇️ @AuschwitzMuseum (2/n) In 1923 the factory where he worked moved from Amsterdam to Gouda, so he was fired.
After that, self-taught Meijer Smeer, earned his living mainly as the conductor of several choirs, mostly in Amsterdam. He, and his choirs, won several prizes at singing competitions.
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@AuschwitzMuseum (1/n) This young woman, called Suzie, was the daughter of Albert, born 12-04-1882 and Henriette, born 27-02-1893. Both born in Romania.
She had a sister Ruth, born 04-06-1924.
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1-Susanne with her dog Fosco
2-With her friend Kees Zuidweg
3-Sister Ruth
4-whole family
⬇️ @AuschwitzMuseum (2/n) The family was in #Westerbork probably from 01-09-1942. On the Jewish council card it says: Uitgesteld (Postponed) 01-09-1942, so they were probably first to be deported on 01-09-1942.
While on Westerbork Suzanne wrote at least 2 letters to her boyfriend Kees Zuidweg.
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@AuschwitzMuseum (1/n) Ilse was the daughter of Leni nee Roos, born 29-05-1990 and Julius, born 18-08-1879. The family lived in Karlsruhe. Ilse, although Jewish, went to a catholic school run by nuns. The catholic did not differentiate according to “racial” criteria.
⬇️ @AuschwitzMuseum (2/n) This in contrast to public schools which from 1936 were no longer allowed to attend Jewish children. Julius had a business selling wines, spirits, colonial goods and sweets. After the kristallnacht the forced "Aryanization" of all Jewish businesses followed.
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(1/n) Charlotte, surviving sister of Suzanne Huisman, was married to Louis Kat, a diamond cutter, born 16-07-1909. They had 2 children, Robert (Rob) and Irene.
Louis's sister Eva and her husband had plans to go to Switzerland and Louis wanted to join with his family.
⬇️ (2/n) But as he didn't want to leave his parents alone they stayed in Amsterdam.
But in 1942 live became more and more harsh and he knew he had to do something. He heard that he could get to Switzerland if he had enough diamonds.

(📷 Charlotte, Irene and Rob, 1941)
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@AuschwitzMuseum (1/n) Martha was married to Joseph, born 07-08-1900 who was a shoe merchant. They had a daughter Eva, born 25-05-1931 and lived in Dortmund. Probably after 'kristallnacht' they knew they had to leave Germany. Eva is the first. In November 1938 she arrived in the Netherlands.
⬇️ @AuschwitzMuseum (2/n) She has been in an orphanage but finally gets with friends of the family in The Hague. Evi dreams of becoming a fashion illustrator and refuses to speak a single word of German. She first attends a public school but in 1941 she is no longer allowed to.
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@AuschwitzMuseum (1/n) Zahri, or Salmin, wife of Isaac, born 16-03-1898. They emigrated to Paris in 1935 and had 4 children. In Paris 2 other children were born:
> Andre📷, born 27-05-1927
> Rene📷, born 02-03-1929
> Raymond born 01-07-1931
> Max Paul (1935)
> Nelly (1938)
> Pierre (1940)
⬇️ @AuschwitzMuseum (2/n) One of the anti Jewish rules in France was that when Jews were standing in a line for a shop they were obliged to let Non-Jews to get before them in the line. 😠This would often led to Jews not being able to buy anything at all.
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(1/8) On 01-06-1931 Bartha Valk (📷on the right) was born in Groningen. She was the daughter of Mozes, born 25-11-1904 and Naatje Valk nee Cohen, born 25-04-1899. She had a sister Jetje, born 28-02-1934.
Mozes settled in Groningen in 1924 and started a pastry shop. (2/8) In 1927 he married Naatje Cohen. Before the war they lived in Groningen, but on their Jewish Council card is an adres in Amsterdam. This is probably the house (📷2) they had to move to. This street, the Schalk Burgerstraat, was in the so called judenviertel II...

@AuschwitzMuseum (1/8) Sara or Serka was married to Moses. Before the war they lived in Oleszyce, Poland. They have 5 children. In 1928 Moses left to settle in Antwerp. In October he submits an application for family reunification in which he declares "I can meet their needs".
⬇️ @AuschwitzMuseum (2/8) Serka and the children are allowed to travel to Belgium in 1929.
(📷1929) Derma and the children:
> Sonia Laja, born in 1922
> Hudes (Lisa), born in 1925
> Munisz born in 1929
> Beile Rachel (Bertha), born in 1927
> Abraham Aron (Bram), born in 1924
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(1/7) On 26-05-1939 Clara Velleman was born in Roermond. She was the daughter of Maurits (Max), a textile merchant, born 19-02-1907 and Rebecca Velleman nee Cardozo, born 01-06-1909.
Clara had 2 older sisters:
> Esther, born 11-05-1935
> Marianna, born 03-09-1936 (2/7) The family lived in Eindhoven in this house, on the Distelstraat 24.
The following story is from miss Bovenchen, who lived in the same street and played with the girls:

On Nr. 30 in this street lived a NSB-sympathizer.
(The NSB was a fascist party in the Netherlands.)

(1/10) On 24-05-1892 Catharina Godefroi, or Cato as she was called, was born in Amsterdam. She married in 1922, at the age of 30, to Dolf de Levita, born 23-06-1868.
They lived in Amsterdam.
In 1923 they had their first child, Frank. He had a brain disease and was blind. (2/10) He died very young. When David, their 2nd son, was born in 1926 their joy knew no bounds and they really spoiled the boy. On 19-01-1928 son Frans was born and on 19-05-1931 Henri.
In 1934 Dolf died of a heart attack.

(1/8) Amsterdam, 11-05-1937. Lea Judith de la Penha was born on this day. She was the daughter of David, a wallpaperer, born 12-08-1909 and Judith de la Penha nee Rodrigues Parreira, a tailor, born 27-09-1903.
They used to live in Amsterdam! (2/8) This picture was probable made in 1939 while they were visiting friends, the Neehus family, during Christmas.
Because David expected to be deported very soon, he gave this book to the family.

(1/5) On 10-05-1900 Flora de Jong was born in Amsterdam. On 07-02-1923 she married Samuël Isaäc van Oesteren, a diamond polisher, born 28-12-1896 in Amsterdam.

They had 2 children:
> Jacques Samuel, born 16-02-1925 (17)
> Selly Flora, born 09-07-1926 (16) (2/5) They lived in Amsterdam, in the district betondorp (concrete village).

Both children were in Westerbork probably from 21-07-1942 and were deported to Auschwitz on 27-07-1942. The Dutch holocaust site states that they both died 30-09-1942. 😢

(1/7) On 09-05-1937 Alfred Lezer was born in Amsterdam. He was the son of Lion Gerzinus (called Leo), born 06-05-1905 and Henriette Lezer nee Fischel, born 15-01-1908. 2 years before, on 07-03-1935, his brother Coenraad was born. (2/7) Leo Lezer and his family came to live in Wijhe in early May 1940, at the request of the Medical Inspectorate to replace the seriously ill doctor Woudstra. After that doctor died he took over the practice. As of May 1941 he was no longer allowed to treat Non-Jewish patients.

(1/9) Elfriede Ingenkamp was born 01-10-1927 in Dinslaken Germany. She was the daughter of Klara Gradus, born 1906 and Fritz Ingenkamp, who was not Jewish. On 23-02-1929 her brother Karl Heinz was born. In 1936 the parents got divorced. (2/9) Elfriede lived for a while with her grandparents, but after the kristallnacht she went with a children's transport to the Netherlands. Her brother moved to cologne and lived in a Jewish children's home. He lived there from 1937 to July 1942.