The Holocaust 04/22/2025

April 24, 2025

The Holocaust, known in Hebrew as the Shoah, was the systematically murdering of 6 million Jews in German occupied Europe in WWII. Prior to WWII the Netherlands had a Jewish population of 140,000. Between 1940 and 1945, 107,000 Jews were deported to the "East" into the concentration camps. Of those, 5200 survived to return to the Netherlands. The Jewish population at the end of the war was 35,000.

When I started writing my trip journals, I strived to keep it lighthearted, where we stayed, where we ate, mistakes we made, what worked, what didn't. After visiting the Anne Frank House and Museum, I wanted to explore this topic a little more.

The number, 6 million, is a statistic of Jewish vicitims. The Frank family were real people. Their story is represenative of many stories of the Amsterdam residents that were deported.

The Frank family consisted of Otto and Edith and their two daughters, Margot and Anne. After the rise of Hitler, the Franks left Germany in 1933 due to increasing anti-semitism. They moved to the Netherlands. Anne was 4 years old. Otto started a business and for 7 years, he and his wife raised their children. As Nazism got worse, Otto decided to emigrate his family to the United States. When the Germans invaded Poland, that was no longer possible. In 1940 the Germans occupied the Netherlands. They were under German rule for the next 5 years. In 1941 the Germans arrested and moved 427 Jewish men to Mauthausen concentration camp. Two men of this group lived. In 1942 the Germans began rounding up members of the Jewish population and deporting them to concentration camps,. In July 1942 Otto moved his family into hiding in an area in his office building where their 25 month ordeal began. Otto gave Anne a diary book, and she started keeping a daily record of the trials and tribulations and their isolation from society. There were also 4 others who shared their plight. Can you imagine what amounts to solitary confinement with 8 people? They were under constant stress and worry that the Germans would find them, and they would be deported to a concentration camp.

The Franks were not alone in this ordeal. His business partners and other close friends assisted them with food and supplies. They were Christians, and they risked their own freedom by helping the Frank family.

Otto did what any parent would do. He looked out for his family. He took them out of Germany, tried to get them to America, and placed them in hiding when the German deportations started. In August 1944 the Germans were informed about the Frank's hiding place and they arrested everyone in the office building. In September 1944 the Franks were sent to Auschwitz. Edith was murdered there immediately. Margot and Anne were sent to Bergen-Belsen. Margot and Anne died in February 1945 in Bergen-Belsen. Otto survived his ordeal at Auschwitz and returned to Amsterdam in June 1945, not knowing whether his family was alive or dead. He found out the truth a few weeks later.

Anne made the last entry in her diary on August 22, 1944, the day before they were arrested. Otto received the diary a couple of months later. It was eventually published and received worldwide acclaim. I learned about the Anne Frank story when I was in school. After taking the tour and walking through the house I realize how little we know about the Holocaust and the effects it had on the lives of so may innocent people.

On a personal note, Linda and I have two daughters. If I lost my family in the way I described I don't know how I could recover from this. There is so much more to this story than can be told in a few words. Buy the book, watch the movie, and if you are in Amsterdam tour the Anne Frank house and museum.