Leo Blom

Leo Blom was a son of Elias Blom (1897-1943) and Marianna Italiaander (1900-1945).^[1] He had an older sister, Janny Alida (1927–2011).^[2] Leo's father was the manager of a textile factory.^[3] His mother worked as an office clerk and later as a nurse.^[4]

In 1941, Leo was enrolled at the HBS secondary school at Jozef Israëlskade 45 in Amsterdam, where he was to start in the first year after the summer holidays.^[5] Because Jewish students and teachers were banned from attending regular schools from 1 September 1941, he had to transfer to the Jewish Lyceum. In the schoolyear 1941-'42 he was in class 1L2, which also included Anne Frank.^[6] In her diary Anne characterizes him as being dirty-minded.^[7]

During the German occupation Leo was in hiding in Rijnsburg, among other places in the vicarage of minister Henk Post.^[8] Post was closely associated with the resistance work of his brothers, protestant resistance fighters Johannes and Marinus Post, and he also regularly provided them and members of both their commando teams with a place to hide. Hundreds of people trying to hide found shelter in Rijnsburg, with vicar Post's rectory serving as a halfway house.^[9] Later, Leo was in hiding with the van Egmond family in Rijnsburg. There he got into an argument with a woman in hiding, but following vicar Post's intervention, it was decided to move the woman elsewhere.^[10]

Leo's father was sent to Westerbork in early October 1942 and then deported to Auschwitz on 2 November 1942.^[11] He died in March 1943 at an unknown location in Central Europe.^[12] Leo's mother received a Sperre, a temporary exemption from deportation, because of her work as a nurse. She went into hiding with her daughter Janny, but they were arrested and ended up in the prison barracks at Westerbork on 6 June 1944. On 31 July 1944, they were deported to Bergen Belsen.^[13] Due to the advancing British army, Bergen Belsen was partially evacuated in April 1945. Marianna and Janny were sent to Theresienstadt. They were on the last train of the “lost transport” which, after two weeks of traveling around, was liberated by the Soviet army near the village of Tröbitz on 23 April 1945. Marianna died in Tröbitz on 11 May 1945, after her liberation.^[14] Janny survived the war and returned to the Netherlands in August 1945.^[15]

After the war, Leo was baptized by Post in the Reformed Church of Rijnsburg.^[8] In October 1958, Leo married Trijntje Harmina Aaltina Post,^[1] a daughter of Henks brother Johannes Post. They had four children.

Source personal data.^[16] Addresses: Gijsbrecht van Aemstelstraat 33hs.^[1]