Louis Boas
Like Otto Frank, Louis Boas was part of the transport to Auschwitz on 3 September 1944 and of the repatriation trip via Odessa to the Netherlands.
Person
Louis Boas married Maria Jacoba (Miep) Grönloh, a daughter of the writer Jan Hendrik Frederik Grönloh, pseudonym Nescio, on 24 January 1940.[1] Boas was a teacher and had a degree in French.[2]
For unknown reasons, he ended up in Westerbork as a 'mixed marriage person' and went on the last transport to Auschwitz on 3 September 1944: the same transport as the Frank family. In Auschwitz, Boas had the status of Schutzhaftling.[3]
A librarian who was in contact with his father-in-law, Nescio, wrote to literary scholar Nico Donker on 8 October 1944: "They are worrying a bit about the daughter [...] now that her husband has been taken to D."[4] And Nescio/Grönloh himself wrote on 29 October 1944, after Miep had written that her husband had been “sent on”: “The news about Louis shocked us, even though we had been prepared for it for a long time. Ossi [= his wife Agatha] had to cry. But who knows, maybe this too will turn out well in the end."[5]
After the liberation of Auschwitz, Louis Boas made the same repatriation trip as Otto Frank back to the Netherlands. From Odessa, they sailed on the ship the MS Monowai to Marseille.[6] On 27 May 1945, he sent a postcard from Marseille to a neighbour asking him to inform his in-laws that he was on his way home “safe and sound and in excellent condition.”[7]
Otto Frank wrote down the name Louis Boas in the notebook he kept during his repatriation.[8] They did not have intensive contact afterwards, but they met by chance in a restaurant in November 1967.[9] Louis Boas and his wife Miep Boas-Grönloh signed the book of condolence at the Anne Frank House after Otto's death in 1980.[10]
Source personal data.[11] Addresses: Eerste Oosterparkstraat 11 I, Amsterdam; Nieuwe Herengracht 97 I, Amsterdam (’41 en ‘46); Statenweg 177a, Rotterdam (1953);[11] Paetsstraat 11;[9] Archimedesplantsoen 36 I, Amsterdam (1980).[10]
Footnotes
- ^ Stadsarchief Amsterdam (SAA), Burgerlijke Stand (toegang 5009), inv. nr. 6595: register van huwelijksakten 1940, deel 3, 32v, akte 45.
- ^ SAA, Secretarie, Afdeling Onderwijs en rechtsvoorganger (toegang 5191), inv. nr. 10830: lijst Joods personeel bij het gemeentelijk onderwijs, 25 september 1942.
- ^ ’Nederlandse Rode Kruis, Bureau Oorlogsnazorg, inv. nr. 1066: transportlijst Westerbork-Auschwitz, 3 september 1944, volgnr. 785; Arolsen Archives – International Center on Persecution, Bad Arolsen, Joodsche Raad Cartotheek: DocID: 130263371 (Louis BOAS).
- ^ Maurits Verhoeff, Verlangen zonder te weten waarnaar. Over Nescio, Amsterdam: Bas Lubberhuizen, 2011, p. 180.
- ^ Nescio, Zingen in het donker: brieven uit de hongerwinter, bez. en toegel. door Lieneke Frerichs, Amsterdam: Van Oorschot, 2025, p. 64.
- ^ Anne Frank Stichting (AFS), Anne Frank Collectie (AFC), reg. code A_OFrank_I_001: 18 lijsten opgemaakt door Centraal Registratie Bureau voor Joden met namen van Joodse overlevenden, 1945, lijst no. 3, lijst van Joden, via Odessa in Marseille aangekomen. Zie ook: Louis Boas, ‘Ik fluister mijn kussen door het nachtelijk blauw...’, in: De Vlam: weekblad voor vrijheid en cultuur, 1 (1945) 12 (11 augusus) (via Delpher).
- ^ Nescio, Zingen in het donker, p. 205.
- ^ AFS, AFC, Otto Frank Archief (OFA), reg. code OFA_040: Notitieboekje met verslag van repatriëring door Otto Frank, achtste beschreven bladzijde plus notitie 19 mei 1945.
- a, b AFS, AFC, OFA, reg. code OFA_051: Kaartenbak IV, adressenbestand Holland, kaartje ‘Louis Boas (Lehrer)’.
- a, b AFS, AFC, OFA, reg. code OFA_066: Condoleanceregister Otto Frank.
- a, b SAA, Dienst Bevolkingsregister, Archiefkaarten (toegang 30238): Archiefkaart Louis Boas; NIOD, toegang 248-A2524: Dossier - Boas, Louis.