rebuilding the family

Rebuilding the family

By David Verveer

Introduction

This article is in actual fact not dealing directly with the Second World War in occupied Holland, but with the personal experience of my mother and our family, in the after match after liberation, about the desperate struggle of my mother, in order to regain her own children, the obstacles, and bureaucracy encountered by local and national officials, but also the unselfish help of kind people from unexpected sources, making the final reunification of our family possible.

I promised my wife, that when stopping with working (I just finished a project that took a full year to complete), I will go through my papers, and dispose of everything which does not have any value. I received 10 big bags which I filled with material gathered over the last 40 years. You realize that this is rather hard task, as every piece of paper represents a story, but promise is promise.

During my cleaning up, I found some copies of family papers that were photo-copied by my brother, after my mother passed away in 1987. He gave all four of us a set of papers, with the hope that at least one of us will have the time to study them and to evaluate their historical value. But all four of us where busy in making a living, and those papers were stowed away, for the last 21 years, without anybody studying their contents.

I discoverd a lot of family pictures and even letters written by my father to my mother during the war, when in hiding, A peculiar fact, worth mentioning, was that they were hiding in the same region of the country (more or less 30 kilometers apart, without knowing it, and in fact they never met again, since we fled on the 3^rd of September 1942. My father was shot dead by the SD in October 1944, very close to the place my mother was hiding).

But, as I said before, I don't want to talk again about the war, but about the after match, when the Germans were defeated, Holland was run by the Allies, with the help of the local government low ranking officials, many of them not totally free of anti-Semitic tendencies, based on the principle, if the Nazis hated and exterminated the Jews, most likely, they (the Jews) most likely earned this treatment.

The Liberation environment

In May 1945, Holland was finally liberated, the Germans were put in prison camps, and the Military command, run by American, Canadian and English officers, took the daily task of feeding and governing the impoverished Dutch population, who were milked dry by the German occupation.

The legal Dutch Government returned from England, but they did not have any backing, or power, their functions were merely symbolic, backed by the love of the Dutch for their popular Monarch, Queen Wilhelmina. But the Allies dealt with the big picture, and were incapable in going down to restoring the living conditions of the individual citizen. The continuance of the local government remained by the same people, who served the Germans so well, during the occupation.

The Allies, in order to prevent total chaos, ordered a restrain on travelling outside the perimeters of the local government, and travelling was permitted only by permit of the Military Authorities, and obtained with the help of the local Government

Official letter reporting the death of my father

Due to the travel restrictions, my mother remained at her hiding address in a village Dalen (de Krim) in Northern Province of Drenthe and tried to find by mail the where about of her husband, and 3 of her children, as my second brother was with her, during the time of liberation. One of the many letters she wrote was to the municipality Maarn (Maarsbergen) from where we fled 3 years earlier.

On the 9^th of June 1945 (or in other words, one month after the liberation), my mother received the following letter (freely translated from Dutch).

"With pleasure I noted from your writing, that you have survived the prosecution, in which many people of your religion were killed, thankfully, you were spared. I am pleased to congratulate you on your survival.

Because of this, I am especially sad to be obliged to answer your query with the information that will surely cause you sadness.

The Municipal administration here received the notification last year that your husband Emanuel Verveer, on the 13^th of October 1944, was executed at Steenwijker-world. We did not receive more information here in Maarn, but this you most likely could obtain at the administration in the above mentioned municipality.

Concerning your two sons Isaac and David, I am sorry, but have no information. On my request, Mr. Dr. J.J. van Heuven Goedhart* reverted this question directly to the person who at the time, took the children in to hiding, with the urgent request, as soon as possible to locate them, and as soon I receive more information, I will let you know.

Your request for the Dutch identity card is enclosed in this writing

Mayor of Maarn"

* Dr. van Heuven Goedhart was a neighbor and acquaintance of my father before our escape. He fled to England, and was appointed there as Minister in the exiled Dutch Government and in the seventies was appointed as UN Secretary for the fugitives. As far as I can judge, he was the person who organized our escape as member of the skeleton resistance organization.

Allow me a foot note: We never discussed this with my mother; as such subjects were general evaded.

Concerning the Identity certificate (letter from the Municipality of Maarn

This letter followed the above letter 3 days later, and is signed by the clerk responsible for the ID certificates. The letter goes as follows:

Concerning your writing, requesting to obtain a Dutch I.D, a responsibility that is in the scope of my function, I am sorry to inform you that I am not able to give you such paper, as you and your family are not any more registered in our municipality, due to your disappearance to unknown address.

You can of course, resettle in our municipality and after that you are able to request the I.D, pending on the inspection by (I persume) the Interior Ministry.

You can most probably obtain a temporary I.D. certificate in the Municipality you reside currently. In any case such certificate should have your photo.

Foot Note: to receive a permit to travel needed of course an I.D., and this official was not very helpful.

I understand that my mother than traveled to Oudehorne Friesland, where my father had been in hiding, and stayed with the family de Jong, who run the local food store. They remained our friends and vacation address for the next 10 years.

The Police chief of Heereveen (Friesland) the municipality of Oudehorne, were my father was hidden was much more helpful, he issued a declaration on the 16^th of June 1945, in which is written:

The undersigned declares that:

Henriette Alter, born 25^th June 1907 (note: precisely 101 years ago today) in The Hague, living in Maarsbergen, provinciale weg B24, temporary residing in Oudehorne, as for so far as known to the police here can be trusted politically and is good behaved.

We plead to assist her in all possible ways.

Chief of Police- Heereveen.

This is followed by a signed request for travel permit (municipality of Heereveen)

Date of planned departure: 27 June 1845

Last day of permit: 9 July 1945

Target city: Einhoven

To and Return

Type of transportation: Auto

The reason why this permit is requested:

Mrs. Alter (Jewish) her youngest child was taken by the Germans and transported to Theresianstad. She received from there a notification that her child was in good health. In the mean time the child arrived in Eindhoven. She want the child, now 3 years old back in her custody, in order to bring her back to Friesland, where one offered her and family a house. In addition, she tries to verify more information on her husband

Travel Permit

I now have to add some guess work, and according the address of my mother on the permit, I understand that this was the house of my friends, Jo Levy in Zwolle, a family who had been hiding at the same address, and befriended my mother, and were lucky to get their own home back in Zwolle. He, Jo Levy, was a person with strong ties both with the resistance, and a good standing with the Allied forces now running Holland.

Later on, he was also responsible to arranging for my mother (and me) a temporary housing for the coming winter, in our old / new municipality of Maarn, and rescuing us 4 months later, by a proposal for my mother to take over the management of the Jewish Parents Home in The Hague, but that is another story.

The following travel permit was obtained by my mother dated 18^th of June 1945:

Netherlands Military Authorities

Name: H. Verveer Alter

Address: Melkmarket 18

Municipality: Zwolle

Holder of Identity card: Temporary

Has a permit to travel from: Zwolle

To: Leiden, Eindhoven and Northern provinces

Reason: Searching for her children

Signed by the Military Commissioner of Zwolle

Locating us

Now again based on hear say, memory and reading it somewhere, my sister Chaja, after surviving the concentration camps as baby, arrived in Eindhoven, in care of the Red Cross, she was 3 and a half years old, ill (TB) and underfed, and after my mother managed to see her, she was send (by a Jewish Organization) for rehabilitation to Switzerland, and was geared back to strength by a well-off Jewish family Bloch (textile manufacturers in Zurich and Basel). Of course, this solution, even though, relatively cruel at the time for my mother by having to part again, was a wise solution, as my mother did not have a house to live in.

My oldest brother Isaak (Jacky) and I were located, after the good people who hide us, answered advertisements in the papers, placed in order to locate the hidden Jewish children and our description somehow fitted the picture. Both my brothers, Bob (who remained in Zwolle by the family Levy) and Jack were send by the Red Cross for rehabilitation to Denmark, however, I could not go as well, due to my health condition, specially because my skin (psoriasis) .

The Jewish Brigade

The next paper, I found was a memorandum (dated 12 September 1945, to the Military Police Check in the Utrecht region, written and signed by O.C Major D..Coy Cahan from the Jewish (Palestinian) 3rd Brigade on which is written:

This is to certify that Mrs. Verveer Alter is hereby authorized to travel to Utrecht and return for the purpose of collecting a stove. She will be travelling in a 15 cub. Truck of this unit.

I assume that this was the visit she went to see me in Oegstgeest, a dramatic meeting, both my mother and me crying, I, because I thought they would not keep their promise to take me for my first time ever, swimming outing, and my mother, of course, a stranger for me, to have found me again. I, however cried for no reason, as my mother could not take me with her, as she had nowhere to go, and the arrangement of a house (mentioned before) had not yet taken place. By the way, I went for my first swim that day, after my mother had left.

The stove mentioned in the letter, never existed.

JEWISH BRIGADE GROUP

Beginning in 1920, Great Britain ruled Palestine under a mandate created by the League of Nations. The British were to facilitate the establishment of a modern Jewish homeland. Due to Arab opposition to the proposed Jewish homeland in Palestine, the British initially refused to establish a separate fighting unit of Jewish volunteers from Palestine. However, wartime manpower requirements and the strategic need to defend the Middle East induced the British to permit the formation of 15 Palestinian Jewish battalions. These units were incorporated into the British army in September 1940. Jewish units fought with the Allies in Greece in 1941; 100 Palestinian Jews were killed there and 1,700 captured by the Germans. On August 6, 1942, the British army formed a Palestine Regiment out of three Jewish and one Palestinian Arab battalion. The regiment fought in Egypt and in the battles of North Africa.

The Jewish Brigade Group of the British army, which fought under the Zionist flag, was formally established in September 1944. It included more than 5,000 Jewish volunteers from Palestine organized into three infantry battalions and several supporting units. Under the command of Brigadier Ernest Benjamin, the Jewish Brigade fought against the Germans in Italy from March 1945 until the end of the war in May 1945. After the German surrender, the Jewish Brigade was stationed along the Italian border with Austria and Yugoslavia, and later in Belgium and the Netherlands. Some soldiers from the Brigade helped create displaced persons camps for Jewish survivors of the Holocaust. Brigade members also became involved in organizing the flight of Jewish refugees from eastern Europe and their clandestine entry into Palestine. Individual soldiers acquired arms for the Hagana, the major Jewish underground defense Organization in Palestine. The end of the story As I related before, around end October 1945, my mother received a letter from the Maarn municipality, in which they agreed to rent her a temporary living facility, which was a leaking summer house in the midst of the woods, a wooden hut without running water. Our before war furniture that remained until then, in our former residence, was donated by the municipality to the Red Cross, and we received some old furniture in return. Why, nobody knows, but certainly not out of love for the Jews. We (my mother and I) remained in this cold and leaking summerhouse until the end of the year, when Jo Levy saved us with suggesting my mother for the function of heading the Jewish Parent home in The Hague (which served that period also as collecting center for the Jews returning from the Concentration camps), but this is another story. The place was beautiful, and even though, a real mad house, the family was reunited. P.S. My mother was only 39 years old, when she took over the management of the above mentioned parents home, with 4 children, between 4 and 11 years old, and without a husband.