Overview
- Interview Summary
- Jacob van Proosdi, born in Amsterdam, Netherlands in 1921, discusses his childhood in Amsterdam; pursuing a law degree; his family’s involvement in the resistance; becoming involved in Jewish lineage cases during the war; falsifying family records to help hide Jewish people's ancestry; working with a Portuguese synagogue to determine the lineage of the Sephardic Jewish community; working closely with Hans George Calmeyer to determine who was and who was not Jewish; visiting Westerbork weekly to check transport lists; specific cases of aiding the release of Jewish men and women from prison; his relationship with Hans Calmeyer and Albert Gemmeker, the commandant of Westerbork; his suspicions about what was happening to those who were deported; realizing after the war that his decisions determined life and death; being recognized by Yad Vashem; and his involvement in Jewish property restitution cases after the war.
- Interviewee
- Jacob van Proosdij
- Date
-
interview:
2004 May 02
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, courtesy of the Jeff and Toby Herr Foundation
Physical Details
- Language
- Dutch
- Extent
-
3 videocassettes (DVCAM) : sound, color ; 1/4 in..
Rights & Restrictions
- Conditions on Access
- There are no known restrictions on access to this material.
- Conditions on Use
- No restrictions on use
Keywords & Subjects
- Topical Term
- World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, Dutch. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Netherlands. Altruism--Netherlands. World War, 1939-1945--Concentration camps--Netherlands. Identification cards--Forgeries--Netherlands. World War, 1939-1945--Social aspects--Netherlands. World War, 1939-1945--Deportations from Netherlands. World War, 1939-1945--Underground movements--Netherlands. World War, 1939-1945--Jews--Rescue--Netherlands. Righteous Gentiles in the Holocaust--Netherlands. Men--Personal narratives.
- Geographic Name
- Amsterdam (Netherlands) Hooghalen (Netherlands) Netherlands.
- Corporate Name
- Westerbork (Concentration camp)
Administrative Notes
- Holder of Originals
-
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Provenance
- This is a witness interview of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's Perpetrators, Collaborators, and Witnesses: The Jeff and Toby Herr Testimony Initiative, a multi-year project to record the testimonies of non-Jewish witnesses to the Holocaust. The interview was directed and supervised by Nathan Beyrak. The interview was conducted with Jacob van Prossdij in the Netherlands for the Netherlands Documentation Project on May 2, 2004. The interview was received by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives Branch in May 2005.
- Funding Note
- The production of this interview was made possible by Jeff and Toby Herr.
The cataloging of this oral history interview has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany. - Special Collection
-
The Jeff and Toby Herr Oral History Archive
- Record last modified:
- 2023-11-16 08:59:12
- This page:
- http://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn517426
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Also in Oral history interviews of the Netherlands Documentation Project
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Date: 2004 May 02-2005 July 15
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