The city of Groningen in the Netherlands was liberated by the 2nd Canadian Infantry Division during the final month of the Second World War. While the battle was not significant to the outcome of the war, the combat was nonetheless significant for both the participants, as well as the citizens who lived through four days of fierce street fighting. Using his grandfather's detailed diary, and with references ...

Selma Engel was born Saartje Wijnberg on May 15, 1922, in Groningen. Her parents ran a kosher hotel in Zwolle during the crisis years. Being Jewish, Selma went into hiding during the German occupation. She was rounded up and deported to Sobibor as a penitentiary measure in April 1943. She lived in this extermination camp for six months, working in the sorting barracks and, sometimes, in the woods. ...

Sary Melles was born Nannie Sari Louise Magnus in Groningen, the Netherlands, on 10 June 1928, the daughter of Noach (born 9 June 1886) and Roosje (née Jakobs, born 23 February 1893) Magnus, both of whom were originally from Emmen. Noach owned a textile business in Groningen, and in addition to Sari, the Magnuses had two other children, a daughter Henriette, or Hetty (born 16 August 1916, Emmen), and ...

Kazerne Dossin Research Centre

De geïnterviewde werd in oktober 1927 geboren in Foxhol, gemeente Hoogezand. Hij is afkomstig uit een gelovig gezin. Hij beschrijft hoe de achtergebleven Joodse vrouwen en kinderen met de situatie omgingen nadat de mannen waren weggehaald door de Nazi’s. Hij was ooggetuige van de treinen die vol Joden die langs het dorp reden. De geïnterviewde vertelt verder over de bevrijding en vertelt hoe veel mensen, ...

The Selma Engel papers consist of a diary, biographical materials, and photographs. The diary (1943-1944) was written by Selma while hiding on a farm in German occupied Poland. It describes Selma’s arrival at Sobibór, the uprising and her escape with Chaim, the farming couple hiding them (Adam and Stefka Nowak), conditions of the farm, and Chaim and Selma’s health issues and Selma’s pregnancy. The ...

Betty Rosenbaum was born on August 7, 1941, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, to Ephraim Izaak Levie (Eil) and Johanna Fredericka Suzanna Zion Rosenbaum. Eil was born on June 7, 1913, in Roden, Netherlands, the only child of Bertha and Izaak Levie Rosenbaum. Johanna was born on February 20, 1914, in Eibergen, Netherlands, where her family owned a textile business. Johanna had five siblings: Julius Jacob, ...