A link to Dad (and the Holocaust) in 1942

     

    Look at these two photos -- from 1942 -- and know that they are special to us, and that, finally, we have copies.
     These two people are my father, Louis Van Thyn -- listed as Levie Van Thijn here -- and his first wife, Estella Halverstad. The photos came to us from Belgium, sent to us on Sunday through Facebook.
     Dad, pictured here, was 23; Stella was 21.
     Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day, so the timing is perfect because these are Holocaust-related.
     They are on display and part of the large database from the Kazerne Dossin -- the national Holocaust memorial museum of Belgium. 
     (It is like the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., the World Holocaust Remembrance  Museum -- Yad Vashem -- in Jerusalem, Israel, and the Dutch National Holocaust Museum in our original hometown, Amsterdam.)
     The Belgian museum is located in Mechelen -- a city between Antwerp and Brussels, the two largest cities in Belgium -- and that is significant, and symbolic.
      Mechelen is where, mostly in 1942-43, Jewish and Romani (gypsy) "prisoners" of the Nazis were held and then sent on transport trains to the concentration camps. Read on for the numbers.
     We are grateful to our cousin, Heleen (Kopuit)  Borgenicht, and her husband, Jacky, for making the 17-mile (27-kilometer) trip from their residence in Antwerp to the museum and providing us with the photos for our records and this piece.
     As Heleen noted, the museum has four floors -- each floor with 160 columns and 40 rows of photos -- of the (mostly) Jewish "prisoners." Heleen wrote "the walls were covered with photos." 
     So, without having the specific location, she and Jacky had to search and search to locate my father's wall photo. 
     Which they did, and here is Heleen (right) pointing to Dad's photo, and a closeup look (left) at the then young Louis.
     It is, as you might imagine, emotional for us to see him as he looked when he was about to head to Auschwitz.
      All the people in the photos on the wall went to the concentration camps -- and for the great majority went to their deaths.
       The Kazerne Dossin website says 25,274 Jews and 354 Romani (gypsies) were transported from Mechelen and that two-thirds were killed upon arrival at the camps.
      Only 1,395 of those listed survived. That word "overlevende" stamped on Dad's photo means survivor.
      Stella did not survive (the word "disparu" on her photo and so many others means disappeared, or death).

Dad (fourth row down, middle)

      Note on Dad's database page: his date of birth (6-7-1919; here in the U.S., it would be 7-6-1919); his place of birth (Amsterdam); his geslacht/gender (man), his spouse's name (the last name is incorrectly spelled, a z instead of s); his beroep/occupation; his departure date from Mechelen (24-10-1942); transport (XV); transport number (180); the number (70726) the Nazis tattooed on his left forearm; and, finally,  the category overlevende ... the answer is "ja," YES.
       On another database page are listed his "arrest" date (18 Jul 1942); his arrival date at Auschwitz (26 Oct 1942); his father's name (Natan Van Thijn -- it should be Nathan); his mother's name (Sarah Van Beer -- it should be Van Beem).
      Meticulous as the Nazis were, they did mess up some record-keeping ... as well as millions and millions of lives.
     And they must have been proud, otherwise why not destroy all those records when it was obvious the war was coming to an end and they were not going to rule the world? 
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     In 1942, Dad was living in Antwerp, with hopes of learning the diamond-cutting trade (thus the "diamondslijper" listing for his occupation). Actually, that did not happen.
     He was already a Dutch Army veteran and, after Nazi occupation of The Netherlands, a released POW.  He had moved to Antwerp from Amsterdam at age 16, living with an aunt and uncle, and doing odd jobs before there was a place for him as a diamond-cutting apprentice.
       After the Nazis released Dad and other Dutch soldiers in late 1940, he went back to Antwerp and eventually married Estella, and they were living with her parents when the Germans/Nazis began their full-scale "arrests" of most Jewish people in western Europe.
     Estella's parents' photos, too, certainly are in the Kazerne Dossin museum.
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     Heleen also did a database search for her maiden name -- and found photos and information on two women: Trijntje Kopuit and Rosette Rachel Kopuit.
    And, yes, they are part of her family ... and ours. Both were born in Amsterdam.
    Trijntje was a great niece of my mother's grandfather Maurits. Rosette Rachel was a cousin of the brother-sister who were my grandmother and Heleen's grandfather.
     Trijntje, born in 1881 (age 60 when she was deported), is  listed as an employee' de maison -- domestic servant.
     Rosette Rachel, born in 1880 (63 at deportation), is listed as a professor. Neither survived the Holocaust.
     The name Rosette Rachel is significant to us, a link to family names. Rozette (with a z) was my mother's given name (Rose for short). Rachel is our daughter (named for Mom's mom, so our Rachel's great grandmother).
     Mom, as many know, also was a Holocaust survivor. Having been picked up by the Nazis in Amsterdam, like most of her family and Dad's family, her transit camp was in Holland (Westerbork). From there they went on the infamous cattle-car trains for the trip to Auschwitz.   
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     At Mechelen, the prisoners were held in Belgian Army infantry barracks. A commemorative plaque was first placed there on May 30, 1948, and beginning in 1956, an annual ceremony has been held to commemorate the Holocaust victims who were housed there.
     After the war, the barracks were converted to a school and had other uses before they became dilapidated, and torn down. But several groups pushed for a Holocaust museum to be built, right next to the barracks' area.
     The Mechelen memorial museum first opened November 11, 1995. A few years later there was need for a larger, updated facility, which opened November 26, 2012.
     Officially, it is the Memorial Museum and Documentation Centre on Holocaust and Human Rights.
     Through cousin Heleen, we first heard about the newest museum before it opened, and the Kazerne Dossin -- connecting me to Dad -- sent an invitation to attend the opening. 
     That did not develop, but through correspondence, we learned of the existence of this database and these photos.
     We had no clue of what we might be receiving, no preview, and to be honest, the museum was asking much more of a payment than we were willing to make.
     Heleen also had been unable to attend the museum opening, but promised that some day she would visit the museum and try to find Dad and Estella's photos. 
     She has come through and we have it to tie into today's Remembrance Day.
     It is the 75th anniversary of January 27, 1945, when the Auschwitz camp was liberated by Allied forces. My mother and father -- and my sister Elsa's -- were free (but never free of the memories) and a few months later they would meet in Amsterdam, starting new lives.
     We remember the Holocaust every day. We will never forget.