The Rescue of Belsen’s Diamond Children (The Holocaust and its Contexts)

This book uncovers the history of a group of Jewish workers and merchants in the Amsterdam diamond industry during the Holocaust. They and their families were exempt from deportation for a long time, but were eventually deported to Bergen-Belsen. In the end, almost all of the men perished, and the women barely survived slave-labour. Their children were left to die in the camp, but were miraculously saved by the intervention of a Jewish Polish woman, ⁰́₈nurse Luba⁰́₉. The main sources on which this book is based are video testimonies of the surviving members of this group, personal interviews, minutes of interviews taken down in shorthand shortly after the war, and personal documents such as letters, archival documents, and autobiographical books Acknowledgements Contents List of Figures Chapter 1: A Brief Overview of the History The Diamond Exemption Bergen-Belsen and Beyond Chapter 2: Sources Oral History Primary Sources Chapter 3: Amsterdam, 1940–1943: ‘A Rather False Sense of Security’ ‘That Can Never Happen Here’ The Beginning of the Occupation The Jewish Council The Diamond Sperre Hiding or Not? Chapter 4: Westerbork and Vught: ‘It Was a Nice Camp, but Despair Played a Big Role Too’ Arrested In the Hollandsche Schouwburg Vught Arrival in Westerbork Daily Life Work The Children Escape Opportunities Temporary Return to Amsterdam Transport Chapter 5: Bergen-Belsen: ‘Everything Fell by the Wayside’ Camp Life Social and Spiritual Life Barrack 17 The Background of the Privileges The Privileges Revoked The Departure of the Men The Asscher and Soep Families Chapter 6: Sachsenhausen: ‘You’re Reduced to Nothing. You’re Worth Less Than a Dog’ Siemens Death March Liberated Jack Engelander Chapter 7: Beendorf: ‘It Is a Miracle That I Survived’ Kapos and Female Guards Work in the Salt Mines Health and Hygiene From Beendorf to Eidelstedt and Hamburg Chapter 8: The Children and Nurse Luba: ‘Just Bring All Those Little Children to Me’ Abandoned Luba Food for Children in a Starving Camp Interactions Contacts Outside the Children’s Barrack Surrounded by Death and Disease Chapter 9: Liberation: ‘I Can Still See the Horror on the Faces of the English’ Food! Recovery Retaliation Return to the Netherlands Goodbye to Nurse Luba Sweden Illnesses Chapter 10: Post-War Lives: ‘Crying Doesn’t Help’ Reception Education and Profession Emigration Traumatised Jack, Betty, and Robby Engelander Chapter 11: The 1995 Reunion: ‘A Time to Heal’ Preparations The Reunion After the Reunion Chapter 12: Testimony: A Valuable Yet Tricky Source Children’s Memories Core Memory Communal Memory The First-Person Narrator Centre Stage Intensification Ada Bimko and the Other Helpers In Conclusion Who’s Who Bibliography Online Sources Visual History Archive (USC Shoah Foundation Institute) Interviews Presented in Alphabetical Order of Surnames as Used in the VHA Catalogue: Archival Documents Index This book uncovers the history of a group of Jewish workers and merchants in the Amsterdam diamond industry during the Holocaust. They and their families were exempt from deportation for a long time, but were eventually deported to Bergen-Belsen. In the end, almost all of the men perished, and the women barely survived slave-labour. Their children were left to die in the camp, but were miraculously saved by the intervention of a Jewish Polish woman, 0́8nurse Luba0́9. The main sources on which this book is based are video testimonies of the surviving members of this group, personal interviews, minutes of interviews taken down in shorthand shortly after the war, and personal documents such as letters, archival documents, and autobiographical books