Wanda Verduin

Wanda Verduin was the daughter of Abraham Verduin (1902-unknown) and Anne Vijevano (1900-1997).^[1] Wanda and her brother Ernst (1927-2021), who was two years younger, were born in Amsterdam but grew up in Bussum from 1935 onwards.^[2] Their father was a manufacturer of ladies' hats.^[3]

Wanda Verduin went to the kindergarten at the 1st Montessori School in Amsterdam during the 1930-31 school year. The following year, she went to the Sixth Montessori School.^[4] Her brother Ernst was enrolled a year later.^[5] He came from Preparatory School No. 51.^[6] After moving to Bussum, both Wanda and Ernst went to the Baarnsch Lyceum. During the occupation, Jewish students and teachers were banned from attending regular schools as of 1 September 1941, and they both had to leave school. In the spring of 1942, the family was forced to move to Amsterdam, where Wanda and Ernst were enrolled at the Jewish Lyceum. Wanda joined class 4B2, which Margot Frank was also in.^[7] Ernst was in class 2L.^[8]

The Verduin family planned to go into hiding. They had arranged a hiding place and false papers, and Wanda dyed her hair blonde.^[9] But they were arrested on 14 January 1943 and transported via the Hollandsche Schouwburg to Camp Vught.^[10] Ernst was put to work in the Splitter department, a fur workshop in the camp.^[11] Wanda and Ernst escaped the Kindertransport that left Vught for Camp Westerbork in early June 1943, with the Sobibor extermination camp as its destination. But on 11 September 1943, they were transferred to Westerbork and from there deported to Auschwitz on 16 September 1943.^[12] There, the siblings were separated. Ernst was put to work in Monowitz (Auschwitz III) and never saw his sister again.^[13] After the war, the Red Cross determined that Wanda had died in Auschwitz in the first half of February 1944.^[14]

In January 1945, when the Red Army was approaching, Monowitz was evacuated. Ernst was transported in open wagons to Germany, with Buchenwald as his final destination. In Buchenwald, he managed to end up in the Dutch barracks for non-Jewish prisoners. There he was liberated by the Americans on 11 April 1945. In August 1945, he was reunited with his mother, who had also survived several camps.^[13] Like his sister, his father did not survive the Holocaust. He died in Auschwitz between November 1943 and May 1945.^[15]

In September 1945, Ernst started at the Baarnsch Lyceum, where he finished his last three years of secondary school. He worked for a few years in his dad's ladies' hat factory, but then quit, stayed and worked for a while in Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, and went on to study economics. He worked for various employers until he was in his 60s and then as an independent pension advisor until he was in his 80s.^[2] Until well into his old age, Ernst Verduin was committed to continuing to tell the story of the Holocaust and keeping the memory of his murdered family members alive.^[16]

Wanda kept diaries from February 1942 to May 1943, which have survived. These diaries, and letters to her friend Els Nieuwenhuijzen from Bussum, served as the basis for her portrait in the travelling exhibition 'Waarom schrijf je me niet' – Post uit de Vergetelheid (‘Why don't you write to me’ – Mail from Oblivion) which was on display at the Baarnsch Lyceum, among other places.^[9]

Source personal data.^[1] Addresses: Burgemeester s'Jacoblaan 56, Bussum; Zuider Amstellaan 162-II, Amsterdam (March 1942).^[1]