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Bloeme Evers - Emden

Bloeme Emden was a friend of Margot. She met the Frank family in Westerbork and Auschwitz.

Person

Vervaardiger onbekend. Fotocollectie United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Bloeme Evers-Emden
  • Bloeme Evers - Emden
  • Amsterdam, Nederland July 5, 1926
  • Herzliya, Israël July 18, 2016

Bloeme Emden, 1942

Vervaardiger onbekend. Fotocollectie United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Bloeme Evers-Emden

In copyright (rechten Derden)

Bloeme Emden was born on 5 July 1926 in Amsterdam[1] to a warm and politically aware family.[2] She was the daughter of Emanuel Emden (1889-1943) and Roza de Vries (1902-1943). She had a six-year younger sister Via Roosje Emden (1932-1943) and lived at Lutmastraat 194 II in Amsterdam.[3] Bloeme grew up in an almost entirely Jewish environment, although her parents were not religiously Jewish.

Anti-Jewish measures

In 1941, Bloeme had to leave her secondary school because of anti-Jewish measures. According to her own recollections, she then went to the Jewish Lyceum and came into contact with Margot Frank, who she believed to have been in her parallel class in the HBS department.[2] Bloeme also remembered Anne Frank, but because of the age difference, they did not get involved with each other much.[4] However, Bloeme was mistaken here, because she did not attend the Jewish Lyceum. Her name does not appear in the Absentee Register of the school.[5] In 1941 she went to the Jewish HBS-A with a five-year course[6] at Mauritskade 24.[7]

In July 1942, Bloeme, like Margot Frank, received a call-up to report for work in Germany.[8] Her father Emanuel Emden was so desperate that he went to the Zentralstelle für Jüdische Auswanderung and arranged a 'Sperre' (temporary exemption) for his daughter.[2] When the deportations began, the classes at the Jewish HBS-A became increasingly empty. Eventually, in December 1942, her school was merged with the Jewish Lyceum at Voormalige Stadstimmertuin 1.[9] By then, Margot Frank had already been in hiding for several months, so they could not have met there.

In May 1943, Bloeme was the last remaining pupil in her class: the rest of her classmates had gone into hiding or were deported. She asked the headmaster, Maurits Belinfante, to allow her to take her oral final exams earlier than scheduled.[10] Together with four pupils from other Jewish schools, she took the exams on Monday 17 May and Tuesday 18 May 1943 and received her diploma.[11]

At the end of May 1943 Bloeme was taken away from home and taken to the Hollandsche Schouwburg. She managed to avoid being registered and could escape by walking with the children to the crèche across the street and by running with the tram that blocked the view from the theatre. Through friends of her parents', she managed to go into hiding.[12]

Imprisoned

After fifteen hiding places, she was arrested in August 1944 when the resistance group she was with was betrayed. Bloeme had been in hiding for a total of 15 months before she arrived in Westerbork, where she met the Frank family again.[13]

Just like the eight people in hiding in the Secret Annex, Bloeme was transported to Auschwitz concentration camp on 3 September 1944. There Bloeme ended up in the same barracks as Anne, Margot and Edith Frank.[2]

In the barracks Bloeme formed a group with thirteen Dutch women, including Lenie de Jong-van Naarden. The group was able to support each other and helped each other whenever possible. Anne, Margot and Edith Frank were also regular visitors and Bloeme remembered that the three of them were always together.[14]

Bloeme could still remember the last time she had seen the Frank family:

"There had been another selection. I spoke to Mrs. Frank with Margot; Anne was somewhere else, she had Krätze. (...) So Anne couldn't come with our group, and Mrs. Frank, seconded by Margot, said: 'And of course we're going with her.' I remember nodding, that I understood that. That was the last I saw of them."[15]

Bloeme, along with 50 other Dutch Jewish women, was transferred at the end of October 1944 to an Arbeitslager in Liebau, Upper Silesia, where she had to perform forced labour.[16] The women worked six and a half days a week and were free on Sunday afternoons. Bloeme remembered that during those free hours, songs were sung that Rozette (Ronnie) van Cleef (1921-2008) wrote to opera and operetta melodies.[17]

They were liberated there on 8 May 1945: "on the first sunny day in May."[18]

Source personal data.[19] Addresses: Lutmastraat 194 II, Amsterdam ('27);[1] Herzliya, Israël (2016).[19]

Footnotes

  1. a, b Stadarchief Amsterdam (SAA), Dienst Bevolkingsregister, Archiefkaarten (toegangsnummer 30238): Archiefkaart Bloeme Emden.
  2. a, b, c, d Anne Frank Stichting (AFS), Getuigenarchief, Interview Bloeme Evers-Emden, 11 maart 2010.
  3. ^ SAA, Dienst Bevolkingsregister, Archiefkaarten (toegangsnummer 30238): Archiefkaarten Emanuel Emden en Roza de Vries.
  4. ^ Willy Lindwer, De laatste zeven maanden. Vrouwen in het spoor van Anne Frank, Hilversum: Gooi & Sticht, 1988, p. 130.
  5. ^ NIOD Instituut voor Oorlogs-, Holocaust en Genocidestudies, Amsterdam, W.S.H. Elte (toegang 181e), inv. nr. 2f: Absentenregister klas 4BI Joods Lyceum, 1 maart – 17 juli 1942; Hondius, Absent, p. 280-281.
  6. ^ Not to be confused with the Orthodox Jewish HBS at Voormalige Stadstimmertuin 2. See: Joods Amsterdam, Joodse HBS / Maimonides en Mauritskade 24 – Joodse HBS.
  7. ^ Bloeme Evers-Emden, Als een pluisje in de wind, Amsterdam: Uitgeverij Van Praag, 2012, p. 64.
  8. ^ Anne Frank, Dagboek Dagboek A, 8 juli 1942, in: Verzameld werk, Amsterdam: Prometheus, 2013. Op zaterdag 4 juli 1942 verstuurde de Zentralstelle zulke oproepen aan duizend vooral Duitse en deels heel jonge Joden. Deze jongeren moeten zonder hun ouders vertrekken. L. de Jong, Het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden in de Tweede Wereldoorlog, Deel VI: juli '42 -Mei '43, eerste helft, 's-Gravenhage: Nijhoff, 1975, p. 5.
  9. ^ Verdwenen Joodse Scholen: Confessionele Joodsche HBS; Digitaal Joods Monument: Joodsche 5-jarige HBS oorspronkelijk Mauritskade Amsterdam.
  10. ^ Evers-Emden, Als een pluisje in de wind, p. 74.
  11. ^ SAA, Archief van de Joodse HBS, van de Stichting Joodse Scholengemeenschap JBO en Gelieerde Scholen (toegangsnummer 1330), Archief van de Joodse HBS, 1.8: Onderwijs en Buitenschoolse Activiteiten, inv. nr. 81: Stukken betreffende eindexamens, 1933-1943: Rooster van het vervroegde mondelinge examen der H.B.S."A" en "B" en van het vervroegde extranei-examen "B" op maandag 17 mei en dinsdag 18 mei 1943.
  12. ^ Evers-Emden, Als een pluisje in de wind, p. 75-79.
  13. ^ Lindwer, De laatste zeven maanden, p. 132-134.
  14. ^ Lindwer, De laatste zeven maanden, p. 143.
  15. ^ Lindwer, De laatste zeven maanden, p. 142-143.
  16. ^ Lindwer, De laatste zeven maanden, p. 138. Zie ook Smolinski Foundation: Krachtbronnen en Anne Frank.
  17. ^ Lindwer, De laatste zeven maanden, p. 139; AFS, Getuigenarchief. Interview Bloeme Everts-Emden, 11-maart 2010.
  18. ^ Bloeme was the only one of her family to survive the war. Lindwer, De laatste zeven maanden, p. 145.
  19. a, b Wikipedia: Bloeme Evers-Emden.

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