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Lena Zwaaf

Lena Zwaaf was a classmate of Margot Frank at the Jewish Lyceum.

Person

  • Lena Zwaaf
  • Amsterdam, Nederland March 17, 1925
  • Sobibor May 21, 1943

Lena Zwaaf was a daughter of Hartog Zwaaf (1885-1942) from Amsterdam and Clara Zwaaf (1884-1942) from Breda.[1] Her parents were married on 1 September 1909 in Amsterdam.[2] Hartog and Clara were cousins: their fathers were brothers.[3] Lena was the youngest of four children. She had two older brothers, Simon (1910-1943) and Levie (1913-1944), and an older sister, Anna (1917-1943).[4] Hartog Zwaaf owned a grocery store at Jodenbreestraat 31.[5]

Lena was a student at the First HBS secondary school at Keizersgracht 177 in Amsterdam.[6] Because Jewish students and teachers were banned from attending regular schools as of 1 September 1941, she had to attend the Jewish Lyceum in Amsterdam. In the 1941-'42 school year, she was in class 4B2, the same class as Margot Frank.[7] According to her card in the Amsterdam Population Register, she was a nursery school assistant.[1]

Her eldest brother Simon married Esther van Beem in 1933.[4] Together they had a daughter: Clara (1936-1943).[8] He opened his own grocery store at Weesperstraat 33.[9] Levie worked with his father in the business[10] and married Rachel Aldewereld in 1936.[4] They had a son: Hartog Isaac (1938-1942).[11] Rachel was an aunt of Salomon Philipse, a classmate of Anne Frank at the Sixth Montessori School.[12] Lena's sister Anna married Lion Godschalk in 1940 and moved to Watergraafsmeer in Amsterdam-Oost.[4] They had two children: Cornelia (1941-1942) and Louis (1942).[13]

Lena arrived in Westerbork with her parents in early October 1942.[14] Hartog and Clara were deported to Auschwitz on 23 October 1942, where they were murdered immediately upon arrival.[15] Lena remained behind in Westerbork and sent three postcards to her friend Netty Blaauw in Amsterdam. The last letter is dated 17 May 1943.[16] A day later, she was put on a transport to the Sobibor extermination camp with 2,511 others. She was murdered immediately upon arrival on 21 May 1943. No one from this twelfth transport to Sobibor survived the camp.[17]

The only member of the Zwaaf family to survive the Holocaust was Lena's nephew Louis (Loekie) Godschalk. Her sister Anna's baby had been hidden with foster parents in Friesland. A biography about him was published in 2018.[18]

Source personal data.[1] Address: Jodenbreestraat 31hs.[1]

Footnotes

  1. a, b, c, d Stadsarchief Amsterdam (SAA), Dienst Bevolkingsregister, Archiefkaarten (toegangsnummer 30238): Archiefkaart Lena Zwaaf.
  2. ^ SAA, Dienst Bevolkingsregister, Archiefkaarten (toegangsnummer 30238): Archiefkaarten Hartog Zwaaf en Clara Zwaaf.
  3. ^ Geni: Simon Zwaaf (1848) en Levie Zwaaf (1860).
  4. a, b, c, d SAA, Dienst Bevolkingsregister, Archiefkaarten (toegangsnummer 30238): Archiefkaarten Simon Zwaaf, Levie Zwaaf en Anna Zwaaf.
  5. ^ Joods Amsterdam: Jodenbreestraat.
  6. ^ SAA, Archief van de Secretarie, Afdeling Onderwijs (toegang: 5191), inv. nr. 7410, volgnr. 2802: Opgave van de 1e Hoogere Burgerschool met 5-Jarigen Cursus, 12 juli 1941, Ingekomen lijsten van middelbare scholen met opgave van aanwezige Joodse leerlingen.
  7. ^ NIOD Instituut voor Oorlogs-, Holocaust en Genocidestudies, Amsterdam, W.S.H. Elte (toegang 181e), inv. nr. 2f: Absentenregister klas 4BII Joods Lyceum, 1 maart – 17 juli 1942; Dienke Hondius, Absent: herinneringen aan het Joods Lyceum Amsterdam, 1941-1943, Amsterdam: Vassallucci, 2001, p. 282.
  8. ^ SAA, Dienst Bevolkingsregister, Archiefkaarten (toegangsnummer 30238): Archiefkaart Clara Zwaaf.
  9. ^ Arolsen Archives - International Center on Nazi Persecution, Bad Arolsen, Joodsche Raad Cartotheek: DocID: 130406392 (Simon ZWAAF); Het Joodsche weekblad, Heropend Kruidenierszaak S. Zwaaf, 16 april 1943.
  10. ^ Arolsen Archives, Joodsche Raad Cartotheek: DocID: 130406342 (Levie ZWAAF).
  11. ^ SAA, Dienst Bevolkingsregister, Archiefkaarten (toegangsnummer 30238): Archiefkaart Hartog Isaac Zwaaf.
  12. ^ Joods Monument: Rachel Zwaaf-Aldewereld en Elisabeth Philipse-Aldewereld.
  13. ^ Joods Monument: Anna Godschalk-Zwaaf.
  14. ^ Arolsen Archives, Joodsche Raad Cartotheek: DocID: 130406336 (Lena ZWAAF).
  15. ^ Arolsen Archives, Joodsche Raad Cartotheek: DocID: 130406306 (Hartog ZWAAF); DocID: 130406284 (Clara ZWAAF).
  16. ^ Kamp Westerbork Digitgale Collectie: Lena Zwaaf.
  17. ^ Stichting Sobibor: Transport 12.
  18. ^ Kees Boorsma, Wie ben ik? De zoektocht van Louis Godschalk. Als Joods kind ondergedoken in Friesland, Aspekt, 2018.

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