Eric Wolfgang Zielenziger was born in Berlin, Germany, on February 6, 1920, to Kurt and Lilly Weyl Zielenziger. Kurt was born in Potsdam on February 21, 1890, to Julius and Anna Landsberger Zielenziger. Lilly was born in Berlin on December 18, 1892, to Siegfried and Jenny Wolffheim Weyl, and had two older sisters. Kurt was an economist and editor of a Berlin newspaper. In 1929, Kurt became Assistant Press Secretary for Berlin’s mayor, Boess. Lilly was a secretary for a socialist politician and worked as a sales representative for a coal mine. They were an affluent family and observed Jewish holidays. Eric was Bar Mitzvahed in 1933. Lilly was Jewish by birth but was agnostic.
After Hitler was appointed Chancellor in 1933, Jews were disenfranchised from German society and Kurt was dismissed from his job. In September, the family left for Paris, France. They lived on money sent by Kurt’s father, Julius. In spring 1934, Kurt’s colleague, Dr. Alfred Weiner, offered him a position as the director of the Jewish Central Information Office, an organization that worked against anti-Semitism. Kurt accepted and the family moved to Amsterdam. In 1936, Eric joined Maccabi Hatzair, a Zionist youth organization. In 1938, Julius passed away. That year, Eric graduated from high school and worked for a Jewish owned import company. After the Kristallnacht pogrom in November, many Jews fled to the Netherlands and Eric volunteered at a refugee home in Eindhoven. In early 1939, Eric’s paternal grandmother, Anna, joined the family in Amsterdam. In 1939, Eric became a leader of Maccabi Hatzair. That year, the Jewish Central Information Office moved to London, England. On May 10, 1940, Germany invaded the Netherlands. Eric and Kurt planned to obtain travel papers for London that day but never received them because of the invasion.
In 1941, a German administrator confiscated the import firm and Eric was fired. He moved to a Hachshara, a training camp north of Amsterdam for young Jews hoping to emigrate to Palestine. On June 11, German authorities arrested 800 boys from the camp. Eric was riding his bike and hid in a funeral parlor. By September, all the boys’ parents had received notices that the boys had died in Mauthausen concentration camp. Eric knew the head of the Jewish Council, David Cohen, who got him a job working for the emigration department. In July 1942, Eric received orders to participate in the Arbeitseinsatz, a German forced-labor program, but his job exempted him temporarily. In December 1942, Eric worked in Westerbork transit camp on behalf of the Amsterdam Jewish Council and helped Jews obtain exit visas. He had a permit that allowed him to travel between the camp and Amsterdam. In March 1943, German authorities told Eric that he would no longer be able to travel between the camp and the city. He decided to stay in Amsterdam and worked in the finance department of the Jewish Council.
In summer 1943, Eric’s grandmother, Anna, was arrested and sent to Westerbork. In June, Eric was informed that the Gestapo and Amsterdam police were going to arrest the remaining Jews in the city. The family rearranged the apartment and put a Nazi newspaper on the table. They hid under the floorboards and placed a carpet and a wooden platform above them. Eric heard Germans enter the apartment, mention the newspaper, and leave. The next day, Eric left the apartment and the Gestapo asked him for identification. Eric showed his expired travel permit for Westerbork and was let go. Eric had previously obtained an identity card with the false identity Cornelis van der Slius, but he did not use it because he did not think he could pass for a non-Jew. On September 28, Eric’s friend warned him that the last round up would occur that night. Kurt and Lilly had obtained visas for Ecuador and decided to stay in the apartment. Eric packed a small briefcase and hid in the boiler room. Kurt and Lilly were arrested and sent to Westerbork. A friend who was in hiding told Eric to meet with a Dutch Calvinist minister, Reverend Evert Smelik, if he needed help. On October 1, Eric removed his Star of David badge and walked to Reverend Smelik’s house, who told him he would stay with Frits (Henk) and Jacoba Blom. Jacoba was a nurse and Frits was a former Dutch Army officer who was hiding because he failed to report for a prisoner of war forced labor camp in Germany. Kurt and Lilly’s non-Jewish friends, Arthur and Grete Connor, brought Eric books and rent money left by his parents. Reverend Smelik visited, and Eric typed various documents for Reverend Smelik’s congregation. Eric spent his time reading and cleaning. He became friends with an elderly nurse who rented a room in the Blom’s home. He sent his parents letters by pasting a letter in a Nazi newspaper and hiding the letter in the folds. In November, Anna, age 76, died in Westerbork. On January 1, 1944, Jacoba gave birth to a daughter, Marijke.
In February 1944, Eric learned that his parents had been deported to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany and were placed in the privileged camp, Vorzugslager. He received news about his parents through letters sent to Arthur from Lilly’s sister, who had escaped to Switzerland. That fall, food shortages were extreme and Eric ate sugar beets cooked into molasses. In November 1944, Arthur Connor offered to hide Eric because the Bloms were having trouble feeding the baby. On December 18, Eric walked to the Connor home, the first time in 15 months (500 days) that he had walked outside. In February 1945, Arthur told Eric that he received a letter from his maternal aunt which said that Lilly had signed a postcard “Widow Zielenziger.” On May 5, 1945, Amsterdam was liberated by Canadian forces. Arthur told Eric to stay inside because there were stray bullets and he did not leave the house until the next day when he saw underground fighters on the streets. In June, Eric heard from a Mrs. Pfifferling that Lilly was liberated by the Soviet Army on April 23 on a train en route to Theresienstadt, but she had died, age 52, from typhoid fever on May 15 in Trobitz, Germany. Mrs. Pfifferling gave Eric his mother’s diary and his parent’s wedding rings. After the war, Eric volunteered with the Joint Distribution Committee. He learned that his maternal aunt was gassed in Auschwitz. Kurt, age 54, had died in Bergen-Belsen in July 1944. Eric received papers of support from a family friend and emigrated to the United States in November 1946 aboard the MS Weltevreden. He married Ruth Hermann in June 1948. Ruth served in the British Army as an ambulance driver in Egypt during the war and traveled to the United States in 1947 to study abroad. Eric became a trader and sales executive. Ruth was a professor at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. Eric and Ruth had two sons. In 1977, Jacoba and Frits Blom were recognized as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem. Jacoba told Eric years many years after the war that Frits was Jewish. Eric, age 90, passed away on November 20, 2010.
