<p>Deportation from the <a href="/narrative/4469">Westerbork</a> transit camp. Members of the Jewish police are seen in the photograph. The Netherlands, 1943–44.</p>
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Eduard, Elisabeth, and Alexander Hornemann. The boys, victims of tuberculosis medical experiments at Neuengamme concentration camp, were murdered shortly before liberation. Elisabeth died of typhus in Auschwitz. The Netherlands, prewar.
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Eduard, Elisabeth, and Alexander Hornemann
Edward was born to a Jewish family in The Hague. In 1929, the family moved to the United States. Because his father had difficulty finding employment, Edward and his family returned to the Netherlands in 1932. They were living in the town of Delft and running a small clothing store when war broke out. Germany invaded the Netherlands in May 1940. Anti-Jewish decrees were instituted, increasing in severity to the point that Jews could no longer own businesses and were forced to wear a yellow badge after May 3, 1942. When deportations of Jews in the Netherlands began, Edward and his family went into hiding. Edward posed as a non-Jew until the end of the war.
Oral History
Edward Lessing describes wearing the compulsory Jewish badge.
Erna Schumer Unger
ID Card
Erna Schumer Unger
Jewish refugees from France and the Netherlands make their way from France into Spain through a pass in the Pyrenees mountain range. They are being rescued by "Dutch-Paris," an organization created by Seventh-day Adventist Johan Weidner. Ca. 1940.
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Escaping though the Pyrenees
Germany invaded the Netherlands on May 10, 1940. Four days later, German planes bombed Rotterdam. The Germans tried to halt the raid on the city because Dutch authorities had agreed to negotiate the surrender of their country. However, a communications failure delayed the order halting the attack. The bombing destroyed much of the city center, leaving almost 80,000 people homeless. The Netherlands surrendered just a few hours later. On May 15, in retaliation for the bombing of Rotterdam, the British air force attacked German industry in the Ruhr.
Film
Fall of Rotterdam
Franz Anton Ledermann
ID Card
Franz Anton Ledermann
Frederik Polak
ID Card
Frederik Polak
German forces during the military assault on Rotterdam during the Western Campaign. Rotterdam, the Netherlands, May 1940.
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Smoke rises from Rotterdam during the German assault
Map
German invasion of western Europe, 1940
Media Essay
German Invasion of Western Europe, May 1940 - Historical Film Footage
Media Essay
German Invasion of Western Europe, May 1940 - Photograph
Gert Laske
ID Card
Gert Laske
Grietje Polak
ID Card
Grietje Polak
The Dutch government established a camp at Westerbork to intern Jewish refugees who had entered the Netherlands illegally. This sketch of the Westerbork transit camp was made by a Jewish inmate who was able to emigrate to the United States. In early 1942, the German occupation authorities decided to enlarge Westerbork and convert it into a transit camp for Jews. The systematic concentration of Jews from the Netherlands in Westerbork began in July 1942. From Westerbork, Jews were deported to the killing centers in German-occupied Poland.
Document
Hand-drawn plan of Westerbork transit camp
Hans Rudelsheim
ID Card
Hans Rudelsheim
Helene Herta Katz Wohlfarth
ID Card
Helene Herta Katz Wohlfarth

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