Safe conduct pass for Berend Slingenberg created by Gerry van Heel, a document forger

Elise Kann was born on December 23, 1930, in Dordrecht, Netherlands, to Jacob and Dora Spanjaard Kann. Dora was born on June 8, 1906, in Eindhoven to Isaac and Juliette Spanjaard-Polak. Jacob was born on August 22, 1900, to Jacobus and Anna Daniels Kann, a secular Jewish family in The Hague. Jacobus, born in 1872, was a prominent banker and publisher, an ardent Zionist, and the first Dutch consul in Palestine. Jacob was an electrical engineer for the Philips Company; he had three brothers, Maurits, Eduard, and Johann and a sister Liz in Haifa. Dora and Jacob married in 1928. Elise had three siblings: Otto, born November 26, 1929, Judith, born July 28, 1934, and Jacob, born March 7, 1936. They lived in a large house with servants and a non-Jewish nanny, Nelly Kwikkers-Fortuin. Dora contracted tuberculosis after the birth of her youngest son and was often bedridden. Jacob was active in the Jewish community and the Zionist movement, but they were a secular family and celebrated Christian holidays with their non-Jewish neighbors.

On May 10, 1940, Germany invaded the Netherlands. Elise woke up to the sound of airplanes. Life for Elise remained normal. They vacationed that summer in Borne at her maternal grandparents. When they returned that fall, Elise noticed changes: ID cards were issued, food rationed, and radios, bicycles, and valuables were confiscated. The non-Jewish servants left. Elise could not go to the park, movies, or play with non-Jewish friends. Shopping was restricted to certain stores and hours. In summer 1941, Jewish children were no longer allowed to attend public schools; the youngest children attended a Jewish school and Otto went to high school in Rotterdam.
On April 29, 1942, Jews were ordered to wear the Star of David badge. Jacob sat at the dining room table, cutting stars out of yellow cloth, and writing Jude on them. He gave one to each family member and explained that they should wear it with pride. The following week, Jews were required to wear stars bought with their textile rations. Non-Jews were not permitted to work for Jews, but Nelly disobeyed the order, arriving and leaving when it was dark. That summer, the Germans began deporting Jews to concentration camps. Classmates and teachers disappeared. One day, the children came home and found backpacks filled with new clothes; their parents wanted to be prepared if they were deported. A family friend from Dora’s schooldays, Molly van Heel, visited from Eindhoven and told Jacob that the family needed to hide, but he refused. After another visit, he agreed to let Molly take the girls if things got worse. In the fall, Elise arrived at a locked school and was told by the caretaker that the rabbi and cantor had been arrested. Elise waited for her siblings; they covered their stars and rushed home. Otto returned from Rotterdam. One November day, the girls put on as many clothes as possible and removed their stars. Their aunt Joyce took them by train to Eindhoven to live with Molly and her husband Gerry. Nelly hid Jacobus and the family physician, Dr. Eppo Meursing, arranged a hiding place for Otto, Jacob, and Dora in a small house on their property. That night, the Germans vandalized the main house. Dr. Meursing sent a carriage for Dora and Jacob and admitted them into the hospital, Dora for tuberculosis, and Jacob, in a fake cast, for a broken leg. Dora’s condition had worsened and she remained in the hospital until it became too dangerous. Dr. Meursing found a nurse, Mrs. Struys, to stay with her in hiding. Six year old Jacobus was sent to Badhoevendorp to live with Noor and Hilde van Andel and their four children. Elise’s father changed his name to Hank and hid with Otto in the home of the nurse’s sister.
Molly and Gerry changed the girls’ name to Kan, a Christian name. They told people that their house in Rotterdam had been bombed, their mother was hospitalized, and their father worked in Germany. They lived in two attic bedrooms with a secret room. The girls went to a Christian school where the schoolmaster was aware of their situation. Nelly brought clothes and relayed news between family members. A German security officer moved into the house, but Molly only allowed him to sleep there during the week.
In November 1943, Otto, now hiding with a different family, was out when German police conducted a search of the house. When questioned, the landlady disclosed that Otto was Jewish and that his father was in hiding also. Otto and Jacob were arrested and placed on a train for Westerbork transit camp. They stood by the door and when the train slowed, Jacob opened the door, and they jumped and ran. Jacob was shot in the shoulder, but he gave Otto the address of a new hiding place and told him to go there. Otto found refuge, but Jacob was caught and, in January 1944, deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. Dora died in Huizen on June 4, 1944.
The Allies landed in Normandy on June 1944 and soon were advancing near Netherlands. On September 18, Eindhoven was liberated by the US Army, 101st Airborne Division. The next day, Molly and the girls used their ration coupons to buy food and make sandwiches for the soldiers. That night, German planes bombed the city.
The rest of Holland was still occupied and the soldiers left. Elise told her friends that she was Jewish and they accepted her. She joined the Girl Scouts, assisted refugees, and returned to school. When the war ended in early May 1945, Molly, who was working for the Red Cross, arranged to have Elise and Judith taken to their maternal grandmother, Juliette. She had been in hiding but now returned to her home in Hengelo; her husband, Isaac, had died in hiding. Their brother, Jacob, was in the northern region which was liberated late and suffered horrendous food shortages because of the German blockade. Mr. van Andel brought Jacob to his grandmother’s on a bike with no wheels, just rag wrappings. Otto also joined them there. They learned that their father had been killed on arrival in Auschwitz. Their paternal grandfathers had been deported in spring 1943 to Theresienstadt concentration camp where Jacob died on October 7, 1944, and Anna on April 28, 1945. Two paternal uncles, Maurits and his wife and Johann were killed in the camps.
Elise married Jacques Jaeger and in 1955, the family emigrated to the United States. The couple had 4 children. Her sister Judith moved to Israel in 1960 where she married Habib Bar-Kochba and had five children.