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Sal De Liema

Sal De Liema befriended Otto Frank in Auschwitz-I.

Person

Fotograaf onbekend. Fotocollectie Anne Frank Stichting, Amsterdam
  • Sally Bernard De Liema
  • Born on: Feb. 14, 1914
  • Born in: Den Haag, Nederland
  • Died on: June 22, 2004
  • Died in: Mission Viejo, Orange County, California, USA

Roos en Sal de Liema, tijdens hun huwelijk, 20 december 1942

Fotograaf onbekend. Fotocollectie Anne Frank Stichting, Amsterdam

Status onduidelijk

Sally (Sal) Bernard De Liema was born on 14 February 1914 in The Hague.[1] He had two brothers and one sister. His father Benjamin De Liema had a wholesale business in toiletries, leather goods and household items, where Sal came to be employed.[2]

On 20 December 1942 he married Roosje (Rose) van Gelder (1921-2014).[3]

Sal and his wife Rose were taken from their home on 10 April 1943 and imprisoned. With the help of friends they managed to get released, after which the couple decided to go into hiding on 23 April 1943. They first went into hiding at different addresses and stayed at Mem Diependaal's house from April to 5 August 1944 until they were discovered and arrested there.[3]

On 11 August 1944, Sal De Liema and his wife arrived at camp Westerbork camp. There, like the eight people from the Secret Annex, they stayed in penal barrack 67 and were forced to work in the battery scrapyard. On 3 September 1944, he and his wife were deported, just like the eight from the Secret Annex, to Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp.[2]

Saving the mind

Once they arrived at Auschwitz, the men were separated from the women and Sal De Liema survived the selection for the gas chamber. Like the men from the Secret Annex, he ended up in camp Auschwitz-I where he had to do forced labor. De Liema stayed in the same block as Otto Frank and quickly became good friends with him.[4]

In an interview with documentary maker Jon Blair in 1995, Sal De Liema talked about his experiences in Auschwitz and his friendship with Otto. He said that during the first week the men could only talk about the horrors of the camp, but soon decided to stop:

“The close bond with Otto Frank arose when I had already been here for at least a week. Of course, all people talked about were the crematoria and the lack of food and clothes. But talking about it didn't help. It actually made it worse. And then Mr. Frank found me and I found Mr. Frank and we said, 'We have to stop this because we're going crazy if we keep talking about food and clothes. We cannot change what happens to our bodies' – because we knew our bodies were deteriorating every day – 'but let us try to save our minds.'”[5]

To cope with the enormous psychological pressure and constant fear, Otto and Sal talked about art and culture::

“Let's say: do you remember the melody of Beethoven's 9th Symphony? And then we started singing it to each other. Just to escape the fear, to think about something else for a while. We talked about Van Gogh, Rembrandt: '[...] Have you ever been to the Rijksmuseum?' [...] And I really think that helped’"[6]

In the interview, Sal De Liema talked extensively about the horrors he and Otto experienced in the camp. For example, he remembered how he and a group of other prisoners, including Otto Frank, were chased naked into a scorching shower room on a freezing day. Two guards with whips chased the prisoners into the room with hot steam. It was so hot and cramped that De Liema fainted and could only just be kept on his feet by his friends:

"The water was so hot, unbelievable. In the first 10 to 15 seconds we didn't feel it much because we were all frozen. [...] But after about 10 seconds you wanted to get out because it was so hot. But there were two German soldiers with a whip and it was like a circus. [...] Apparently I fainted then. They told me that afterwards, I didn't realize it myself. It only lasted a few minutes, but they knew I was in grave danger. Because if they found someone on the ground, they just threw him into the fire."[7]

Another time, De Liema, Otto and other prisoners were instructed to make frog jumps in their underpants. The prisoners regularly fell, causing the guards to beat them with a whip to get them back on their feet.

Liberation

In January 1945, De Liema became seriously ill with Durchfall (diarrhea) and lost sight of Otto Frank. Although De Liema was initially sent on one of the death marches during the evacuation of Auschwitz, he managed to escape and hide in a barracks. Auschwitz was liberated on 27 January 1945. De Liema contracted mumps soon after the liberation and had to stay in Auschwitz to recover.[2]

After De Liema recovered, he helped out in the hospital for some time before arriving in Pilsen via Bistra. There he heard from Rozette (Ronnie) van Cleef (1921-2008) that his wife Rose was still alive and on her way to the Netherlands. From Pilsen, De Liema eventually flew to Brussels and immediately drove to The Hague where he saw his parents and brother again.[8] A few weeks later, on 30 June 1945, De Liema was reunited with his wife Rose.[9]

On 2 September 1950, the couple emigrated to the United States with their two children.[9] Sal De Liema died on 22 June 2004 at the age of 90 in Mission Viejo, Orange County, California, United States.[10]

Footnotes

  1. ^ Geboorteakte Sally Bernard de Liema, Haags Gemeentearchief, 0335-01.532 Nadere toegang op het geboorteregister van de gemeente 's-Gravenhage, aktenr. 987, toegangsnr. 0335-01 Ambtenaar van de burgerlijke stand van de gemeente 's-Gravenhage, Inventarisnr. 532.
  2. a, b, c Anne Frank Stichting (AFS), Getuigenarchief, interview Sal de Liema, 24 maart 1997.
  3. a, b Rose De Liema-van Gelder, So you will remember. A mother writes to her children, eigen beheer, 1982, p. 28-29.
  4. ^ Bas von Benda-Beckmann, Na het Achterhuis. Anne Frank en de andere onderduikers in de kampen, Amsterdam: Querido, 2020, p. 173.
  5. ^ Origineel citaat: ‘[T]he close relationship with Otto Frank happened after at least a week being here, really, and all people are talking about was of course the crematorias, no food, no clothes... But talking about it didn’t help. It actually hurt much. And then Mr. Frank found me, and I found Mr. Frank and we said: We have to stop this, because we are killing our brain here, to talk about, all the time about food and clothes. [...] We cannot do anything [about] what will happen to our body, and we knew our body was going down every day, but let’s try to save our brain.’ AFS, Sal de Liema, Collectie Jon Blair, ‘Anne Frank Remembered’, 1995 (transcript ruwe materiaal), 3.3. Zie voor meer details ook USC Shoah Foundation - The Institute for Visual istoery and Education: Interview Sal de Liema, 25 april 1995.
  6. ^ Origineel citaat: ‘Let’s say: do you remember the melody from… the 9th symphony of Beethoven and then we start singing to each other. Just to get away from this fear, just to get our brain thinking about other things. We talked about Van Gogh, Rembrandt, [...] did you ever go to the Rijksmuseum? [...] And it really helped I think.’ AFS, Collectie Jon Blair, Anne Frank Remembered, 1995 (transcript ruwe materiaal), 24-25.
  7. ^ Origineel citaat: ‘[T]he water was so hot, it was unbelievable. In the first let’s say 10-15 seconds, it didn’t bother us much because we were all frozen. [...] But after maybe 10 seconds you want to get out because it was so hot. But there were two German soldiers with a whip and they were going like in a circus. [...] [A]pparently what happened to me, I blacked out. Later on they told me, I didn’t know. It was only for a couple of minutes, but they felt it was a danger, a great danger to me, because if they found somebody on the floor they just throw ’em in the fire.’ AFS, Collectie Jon Blair, Anne Frank Remembered, 1995 (transcript ruwe materiaal), 3.
  8. ^ Zijn zus Rozine Peekel-de Liema was op 19 november 1943 vermoord in Auschwitz. Joods Monument: Rozine Peekel de Liema; AFS, Getuigenarchief: Interview Sal de Liema, 24 maart 1997.
  9. a, b De Liema-van Gelder, So you will remember, p. 28 en 33.
  10. ^ Find a Grave: Sal Bernard de Liema.