Eddy Bremer

​Eduard (Eddy) Bremer was the son of Simon Bremer (1891-1942) and Branca Koperenberg (1895-1942).^[1] His father Simon was a diamond broker.^[2] Eddy had a four-year-older sister, Sophia, born in 1919.^[3]

Eddy was a student at the 3rd HBS 5 on Mauritskade in Amsterdam, where he repeated both the first and second year twice. He then went to the Lyceum Drafna in Naarden. Jewish students and teachers were banned from attending regular schools from 1 September 1941. In November 1941, he was enrolled in class 5B at the Jewish Lyceum in Amsterdam.^[4] An assessment dated 4 February 1942 shows that he had been moved back to 4B2, Margot Frank's class. According to maths teacher Aäron Kessing, Eddy did better in 4B2 than in 5B. Physics teacher Maurits Goudeket felt that Eddy was not working hard enough, and English teacher David de Vries had yet to see whether Eddy would do better in the fourth class than he had in the fifth.^[5] On 9 February 1942, headmaster Elte reported that Eddy had left the school on 5 February 1942.^[6]

In mid-July 1942, Eddy Bremer fled with his parents and the couple Isaac Polak and Selina Polak-de Vries and their daughter Eva Frederika on foot across the Belgian border near Baarle-Nassau, after which they rented a number of rooms in Antwerp. They were in possession of false passports and had converted their assets into diamonds. On 31 July, they took the train to Paris to seek refuge in France, but at the Feignies border post they were checked after a Belgian collaborator had informed the Devisenschutzkommando (DSK) of their flight.^[7]

The two families were handed over to the Feldgendarmerie in Maubeuge. Their interrogation revealed that they had met someone in a café in Antwerp who had provided them with false passports for the astronomical sum of 4,000 Belgian francs per person. All their possessions were confiscated by the DSK. On 3 August 1942, Simon Bremer and Isaac Polak were sentenced to five months in prison by the German military court in Valenciennes. However, without waiting for this sentence to be carried out, both families were handed over to the Gestapo and transferred to Kazerne Dossin in Mechelen. From there, they were deported to Auschwitz on 1 September 1942 with Convoy VII. None of them survived the deportation.^[7]

Three days earlier, on 29 August 1942, Elias Bremer, the husband of Eddy's sister Sophia, had been deported from Kazerne Dossin to Auschwitz on Convoy VI.^[8] Sophia had married her cousin, the doctor Elias Bremer, on 13 September 1938 (his father Meijer Bremer was a brother of Sophia's father Simon).^[9] Their daughter Karin Bianca Irene was born on 6 January 1941. After their wedding, Sophia and Elias went to live at Oosterpark 35, where Elias also had his practice. Sophia's parents and younger brother Eddy lived next door at Oosterpark 36. How and why Elias travelled to Belgium remains unclear. Sophia Bremer-Bremer also managed to cross the border into Belgium and went into hiding in Edegem, near Antwerp, with her daughter and 24-year-old Jonas Polak (1918-1972), the son of the aforementioned Isaac and Selina Polak.^[10]

Sophia and Jonas had entrusted their jewellery and security papers to the Flemish diamond merchant Gustaaf De Schutter. When they wanted to change their hiding place and move to the safer Brussels, they asked De Schutter to return 60,000 Belgian francs, after which they were betrayed by De Schutter and arrested on 13 March 1943.^[10] They were taken to Wilrijk prison before being transferred to Kazerne Dossin on 19 March. From there, they were transported to Auschwitz on 19 April 1943 with Convoy XX, where Sophia and her daughter were gassed immediately upon arrival. Jonas Polak managed to escape from the transport by jumping off the train with a number of others.^[11]

Source personal data.^[12] Address: Amsterdam: Oosterpark 36hs.^[12]