Overview
- Interview Summary
- Lena Kaufman (formerly Lina Kaufmann) discusses experiences relating to the Holland Underground from 1942 - 1945.
- Interviewee
- Lena Kaufman
- Date
-
interview:
1973
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Marion Cassirer
Physical Details
- Extent
-
3 sound cassettes : analog.
Rights & Restrictions
- Conditions on Access
- There are no known restrictions on access to this material.
- Conditions on Use
- No restrictions on use
Keywords & Subjects
Administrative Notes
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Provenance
- The oral history interview with Lena Kaufman was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2012 by Marion Cassirer.
- Special Collection
-
The Jeff and Toby Herr Oral History Archive
- Record last modified:
- 2023-11-16 09:28:38
- This page:
- http://collections.ushmm.org/search/bookmarks/irn47094
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Also in Marion Kaufman Cassirer family collection
The collection consists of a suitcase and key, audio tapes, documents, photographs, newspaper clippings, and prayer book relating to the experiences of Marion Kaufmann and her mother Lina in the Netherlands and the United States after the Holocaust, during which they fled Germany and lived in hiding separately in the Netherlands. Some of these materials may be combined into a single collection in the future.
Date: 1945-1973
Yellow and green suitcase with key used by a German Jewish girl
Object
Yellow suitcase with green trim and a small key used by 12 year old Marion Kaufmann when she and her mother emigrated to the United States from Holland in February 1949. Marion's parents, Lina and Walter, owned an electrical repair shop in Berlin that was destroyed during Kristallnacht, November 9-10, 1938. They worked in a Jewish daycare center until 1941, when the orphans were deported and the center closed. Walter made preparations for the family to escape, but was arrested in October 1942. Six year old Marion and her mother Lina fled to the Netherlands. In Amsterdam, Dr. Max Knapp of the Dutch underground arranged separate hiding places for them. Marion was hidden with Boy and Mia Edgar in Amsterdam. She was arrested and sent to a transit camp for Jewish children in Amsterdam until rescued by the Edgars. They arranged for her to hide in various places near Arnhem: a convent in Malden, and the De Kleyn and then the Beelen homes in Overasselt. Marion was with the Beelen's from April 1943-September 1945, except for one month during the Allied Operation Market Garden in September 1944 when she was placed with a traveling group of Roma for safety. Lina was hidden in a home in Amsterdam that was raided. She then was moved to the Wesselius family farm in Oude Wetering. German soldiers were billeted nearby, and it was too dangerous to stay in the house, thus she was hidden in a haystack most of the time. The war ended in May 1945, and Lina found Marion at the Beelen farm in September. They eventually learned that Walter had died in Auschwitz in January 1943. Marion and Lina lived in Amsterdam until leaving for the US in 1949.
Dutch newspaper clippings
Document
Contains Dutch newspaper clippings from Mar./April 1945: 28 Maart 1945, document entitled "Trouw"; newspaper clipping 13 April 1945 announcing the death of President Roosevelt and showing a map of the Allied march into Berlin, Germany; and a flyer imploring for all citizens to aid the Allied effort with any means necessary.
Lina Kaufman and Marion Kaufman Cassirer papers
Document
Contains identity documents, restitution paperwork, newspaper clippings, and other materials concerning Marion Kaufman (now Marion Cassirer) and her mother, Lina Kaufman, who hid in the Netherlands during the Holocaust with the help of a false identity papers provided by a non-Jewish friend, Emmy Erdmann. Marion was in several different hiding situations, including with the Edgar family, at a convent, with the Beelen family in Overasselt posing as one of the family's children, and with a family of Roma, Lina hid with the Wesselius family in Oude Wetering and lost contact with Marion for a few years, reuniting after the war. They emigrated to the United States by 1949.
Book
Object
Psalm book given to Lina Kaufmann with an inscription by the Wesselius family who provide a hiding place for her from September 1943-May 1945 in Holland. Marion's parents, Lina and Walter, owned an electrical repair shop in Berlin that was destroyed during Kristallnacht, November 9-10, 1938. They worked in a Jewish daycare center until 1941, when the orphans were deported and the center closed. Walter made preparations for the family to escape, but was arrested in October 1942. Six year old Marion and her mother Lina fled to the Netherlands. In Amsterdam, Dr. Max Knapp of the Dutch underground arranged separate hiding places for them. Marion was hidden with Boy and Mia Edgar in Amsterdam. She was arrested and sent to a transit camp for Jewish children in Amsterdam until rescued by the Edgars. They arranged for her to hide in various places near Arnhem: a convent in Malden, and the De Kleyn and then the Beelen homes in Overasselt. Marion was with the Beelen's from April 1943-September 1945, except for one month during the Allied Operation Market Garden in September 1944 when she was placed with a traveling group of Roma for safety. Lina was hidden in a home in Amsterdam that was raided. She then was moved to the Wesselius family farm in Oude Wetering. German soldiers were billeted nearby, and it was too dangerous to stay in the house, thus she was hidden in a haystack most of the time. The war ended in May 1945, and Lina found Marion at the Beelen farm in September. They eventually learned that Walter had died in Auschwitz in January 1943. Marion and Lina lived in Amsterdam until leaving for the US in 1949.
Marion Kaufman Cassirer family photographs
Document
Accretion of photographs to Lina Kaufman and Marion Kaufman Cassirer papers (2012.261.1) related to their Holocaust experiences in the Netherlands and later immigration to the United States in 1949.
