Werner Joseph
Werner Joseph was a classmate of Anne Frank at the Jewish Lyceum.
Person
Werner Joseph was a son of Friedrich Joseph and Hedwig Hermanns.[1] He grew up in Breslau as the youngest in a family of three boys. He and his older brothers Heinz-Günther (1922) and Hans Hugo (1924)[2] came to the Netherlands on a Kindertransport on 5 January 1939. Their parents had planned to emigrate to Columbia, but had insufficient means to do so. Thereupon they decided to let the three boys go to the Netherlands.[3]
After staying together for ten months in the Dommelhuis, a shelter for Jewish boys in Eindhoven,[4] Heinz-Günther and Hans Hugo left for the Werkdorp Wieringermeer, an agrarian training complex for young Jewish refugees from Germany and Austria.[5] They remained there until the evacuation on 20 March 1941. It is possible that Werner visited his brothers in the Werkdorp.[6]
On 11 June 1941, there was a raid in Amsterdam-South, mainly targeting former residents of Werkdorp Wieringermeer. Heinz-Günther was one of 57 Werkdorp residents who was caught then and deported to Mauthausen via Camp Schoorl. There he was murdered on 16 September 1941.[7] Hans-Hugo stayed in Amsterdam until April 1943. He went to the Youth House of the Jewish Council on Plantage Franschelaan as early as the fall of 1941.[8] Werner followed less than a year later. In the meantime, he stayed with foster families in Amsterdam.
In school year 1941-1942, Werner was in class 1L2 of the Jewish Lyceum in Amsterdam and in class 2B in 1942-1943.[9] In her diary Anne characterizes him as 'too quiet because of the times we live in', so that he appeared dull.[10] On 6 May 1943 principal Elte reported that Werner had left the school.[11]
The two brothers were arrested on 20 April 1943 and deported to Westerbork. Along with 1.185 men, women and children Werner was transported to Sobibor on 4 May 1943, where they were all murdered immediately upon arrival on 7 May 1943.[12] Their parents had already been deported from Düsseldorf to the Riga ghetto on 11 December 1941: father Friedrich was killed in Salaspils concentration camp in January 1942; mother Hedwig in camp Stutthof.[13]
Source personal data [1] Addresses: Dommelhuis, Jonckbloetlaan 13, Eindhoven (jan. 1939); Kalverstraat 92hs, (mrt. 1940); Grensstraat 9 I, Plantage Franschelaan 13 hs, Amsterdam (1941).[1]
Footnotes
- a, b, c Stadsarchief Amsterdam, Dienst Bevolkingsregister, Archiefkaarten (toegangsnummer 30238): Archiefkaart Werner Joseph.
- ^ SAA, Dienst Bevolkingsregister, Archiefkaarten (toegangsnummer 30238): Archiefkaart Hans Hugo Joseph.
- ^ See the dossiers of Heinz-Günther, Hans-Hugo and Werner Joseph on the Dokin website.
- ^ In 1939 it temporarily housed a total of 200 young Jewish refugees from Germany, who, incidentally, were housed elsewhere in the country the same year. The driving force behind the Dommelhuis was Hilda Verwey-Jonker. Eindhoven in de Tweede Wereldoorlog: Hilda Verwey-Jonker: De Eindhovense oorlogsperiode.
- ^ Joods Monument: Werkdorp Wieringermeer.
- ^ He is listed as one of the victims on the website wit the names of 197 Werkdorp residents. Werkdorp Wieringermeer: Werner Joseph.
- ^ Werkdorp Wieringermeer: Heinz Günther Joseph.
- ^ Werkdorp Wieringermeer: Hans Hugo Joseph.
- ^ NIOD Instituut voor Oorlogs-, Holocaust en Genocidestudies, Amsterdam, Archief 181e (W.S.H. Elte), inv. nr. 2f: Absentenregister klas 1LII Joods Lyceum, 1 maart – 17 juli 1942; Dienke Hondius, Absent: herinneringen aan het Joods Lyceum Amsterdam 1941-1943, Amsterdam: Vassallucci, 2001, p. 269-270; Wikipedia: Klas van Anne Frank.
- ^ Anne Frank, Diary Version A, 16 June 1942, in: The Collected Works, transl. from the Dutch by Susan Massotty, London [etc.]: Bloomsbury Continuum, 2019.
- ^ NIOD, Joodsche Raad voor Amsterdam (toegang 182), Afdeling Onderwijs, Inrichting voor Voortgezet Onderwijs, Bundel correspondentie van de rector van de Inrichting voor Voortgezet Onderwijs (het voormalig Joodsch Lyceum, rector: W.J.H.Elte) te Amsterdam, november 1942 - mei 1943: W.S.H. Elte aan de Joodse Raad van Amsterdam, 6 mei 1943.
- ^ Joods Monument: Werner Joseph.
- ^ Bundesarchiv - Gedenkbuch Opfer der Verfolgung der Juden unter der nationalsozialistischen Gewaltherrschaft in Deutschland 1933 - 1945: Joseph, Friedrich; Joseph, Hedwig.