Philips dynamo hand generator flashlight used by a Dutch Jewish family in prison camps

Roosje (Rodi) Waterman was born on April 26, 1936, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, the only child of a Jewish couple, Meijer, born on July 14, 1903, in Amsterdam, and Frederika (Sophie) Keizer Waterman, born on October 9, 1907, in London, England. Sophie’s parents, Samuel and Dinah Keizer (Keiser), born on September 29, 1882, were Dutch citizens, but Samuel decided to move his wife and 3 month old, Stella (Estella), to London from Amsterdam for better business opportunities. Sophie and her siblings, Janie, Margie, Philip, and Nathan, were born in England. Therefore, all of Samuel’s children, apart from Stella, had British birth certificates and passports. Samuel moved his family back to Amsterdam in 1923 and opened a shoemaking and leather shop.

Sophie married Meijer in Amsterdam in 1935. Meijer had a twin brother, Maurits (Moses), who married Sophie’s older sister, Stella. Roosje’s parents worked for the Keizer family business. After the Germans occupied the Netherlands in May 1940, many anti-Jewish policies were put in place: Jews had to wear Stars of David on their clothes, businesses were confiscated, and they were forbidden from using public transportation or attending public school. Meijer tried to arrange visas for the family to go to Portugal, but emigration was not possible. On September 25, 1942, Sophie and Meijer were arrested by the Germans and the family was sent to Westerbork transit camp in the northeastern Netherlands. They were recognized by a German officer, who was a friend of Roosje’s uncle, while they were being processed to be sent to Auschwitz concentration camp, and the officer took their names off the list. Samuel, Roosje’s maternal grandfather, bribed some Germans in Amsterdam with diamonds to release Roosje and her parents. They returned to Amsterdam on October 2, 1942.

In 1943, the Germans confiscated the family business and Roosje, her parents, and her maternal aunts were forced to move into the Jewish quarter. In early summer, Roosje, her parents, and her maternal grandparents and aunts, Samuel, Dinah, Janie, and Margie Keizer, were arrested and sent to Westerbork. Janie had her British passport and when she showed it to the guards they said she would be transferred to another camp. She told them that Sophie was also British and together they were able to convince the Germans that they were all British citizens. They claimed that the others had lost their passports during the bombing on the embassy. On March 9, 1944, the Germans deported both families to Vittel internment camp in northeastern France. The Allies liberated the camp on September 12, 1944. The families returned to Amsterdam. The majority of her father’s family perished in the Holocaust; he was the only one of seven siblings to survive. His brother, Maurits, and his wife, Stella, had been deported to Bergen Belsen concentration camp where they died in 1945. The family was able to reclaim their shoemaking business in Amsterdam. Her aunts, Jane and Margie, emigrated to the United States in 1948. Roosje and her parents joined them in Chicago in 1951. Rodi married Marvin Glass in 1955 and they have two children. Sophie died on August 8, 2011, age 103.