Clara (Clary) Vromen was born on September 27, 1931, in Enschede, Netherlands, to Abraham and Minnie van Dam Vromen. Minnie and Abraham married on December 13, 1927, in Enschede. She had an older brother, Jaap (Jacob) Herman, born on July 21, 1930. Her father was a businessman and head of Hachsara, a Zionist youth movement. The family emigrated to Palestine and settled in Tel Aviv. However, her parents divorced on October 27, 1934, and Minnie and the children returned to the Netherlands and settled in The Hague.
Germany invaded the Netherlands in May 1940. The Germans enacted anti-Jewish laws; they had to register as Jews and wear Star of David badges on their clothing at all times; businesses and possessions were confiscated. By summer 1942, there were mass deportations of Jews to concentration and death camp in Poland. In November, two Dutch policemen came to arrest them, but a Jewish Council representative was able to convince the police that Minnie’s work as a social worker was necessary to the community and they were exempted from deportation. Minnie decided that they should go into hiding. She sent the children to her parents and an uncle, who was not Jewish, Piet van der Meulen, made arrangements for their safekeeping. In February 1943, the children’s Star of David badges were removed and they travelled to Deurne where they were hidden in separate homes: Jaap with the vicar and Klara with the parents of the vicar’s housekeeper. Minnie was able to visit them only on their birthdays.
Clara had to leave a home in Linburg in 1941 because she needed an ear operation. The nuns put her in an infectious disease ward to reduce the risk of discovery. But after she sang an anti-German song in the hospital, Julianna Kindersickhus, she had to leave and was taken to Minnie’s cousin, Anneke. She was taken to a home in Amsterdam, but they did not want to keep her as they thought she looked too Jewish. She was sent to home in Utrecht, but there were two other children and the Germans became suspicious. A man came to fetch her and she was welcomed into the home of a Catholic family, Gerard and Riek Hoefs and their two children. They pretended that she was their niece from Zeems Vlanderen and cared for her for the remainder of the war. Clara was raped by her foster father while in their home. One day, two German soldiers rang the bell to ask directions. Clara, on the second floor, became scared and jumped out the window into the neighbor’s garden, injuring her back. There was a hidden cupboard where on another occasion; she hid for several hours as the Germans were searching houses for some other Jews. While the Hoefs never imposed their Catholicism on Clare, she rejected Judaism after the war.
After the war ended in spring 1944, Minnie’s whereabouts were not known. One day, Gerard saw Clara’s name on a register at the nearby synagogue in Bossum, indicating that her mother was searching for her. Mother and daughter were reunited. Although Clara had rejected her Jewishness, Minnie insisted that she attend Jewish summer camp. They returned to Enschede and found strangers living in their apartment and all their belongings gone. Minnie then relocated the family to Amsterdam where Clara had to attend Jewish high school for two years, although she did not graduate. In 1950, Clara left to study nursing in London and, in 1952, immigrated to Israel. Clara married a man named Keren and had two children. She visited the Hoefs every year until they passed away. Gerard and Riek Hoefs were honored in 1977 as Righteous Among Nations and planted a tree with Clara at Yad Vashem.
Minnie van Dam was born on June 6, 1907, in Enschede, Netherlands, to Clara Samson, born October 4, 1880 in Herbern Westfalen, and Isidoor van Dam, born March 22, 1876, in Enschede. Minnie had two sisters Hettie Wilhemina, born July 28, 1902, and Edith Rebecca, born December 25, 1918. Her father own a textile factory, M. van Dam and Zonen. On December 13, 1927, Minnie married Abraham Vromen in Enschede. The couple had a son, Jaap Herman, born July 21, 1930, and a daughter, Clary (Clara) Renee, born September 27, 1931. The family moved to Tel Aviv, Palestine, but Abraham and Minnie divorced, and, in October 1934, she and the children moved back to the Netherlands.
Minnie and the children settled in The Hague. She enrolled in a Red Cross training program and became a hospital assistant. On May 10, 1940, Germany invaded the Netherlands. Minnie was a member of WIZO (Women’s International Zionist Organization) and they offered her a position as a social worker which provided papers that authorized her continued stay in Holland. The Germans anti-Jewish policies became increasingly punitive. After about a year, the Germans began to transport Jews from all over Holland to Amsterdam. Most of the family’s possessions were confiscated. By the summer of 1942, Jews were being deported to extermination camps in Poland. At the end of November, two Dutch policemen came to deport the family to Westerbork internment camp. A member of the Jewish Council was able to convince them that Minnie’s social work activity was essential to the community and they were released. Minnie decided that they needed to go into hiding. She sent her children to her parents while she sought a safe place. She stayed with friends, Louise and Suzanne Meyers, and until they also decided to go into hiding. In February 1943, the children were told to remove their Star of David badges and were taken by a friend to Deurne where they were hidden in separate homes: Jaap with the vicar and Klara with the parents of the vicar’s housekeeper. Minnie was able to visit them only on their birthdays. Minnie assumed a false identity, Nellie Boorsma, and hid at a farm in southern Holland from April 1, 1943 to October 1943. She helped care for the six children and was able to listen to forbidden Allied Dutch radio broadcasts in the evenings.
When people in the community became suspicious, Minnie was moved to the home of a peasant family, and two weeks later, to the town of Neuren where she was employed as household help by a Catholic family. Minnie pretended to be Catholic and attended Mass. However, as they were expecting a new baby and had many visitors, she did not feel safe. She next stayed for a few weeks with her cousin, Anneke, and her Christian husband, Johan le Febre. She then found a job as a chambermaid with the Fernhout family in Laren; they were also hiding three Jewish men. Minnie shoveled coal and tended the furnace; the men in hiding offered to help but Madame Fernhout said it was work only for the servants. She stayed there from March 1, 1944 to February 1, 1945. When another family moved into the house, the work burden became too hard for Minnie and she gave notice. She hoped to find a hiding place with her children, but the 1944-45 Winter of Hunger was an extreme hardship for everyone. Just before Minnie was to leave, thirteen year old Jaap, arrived; he had been asked to leave the home where he was hiding. Madame Fernhout let him stay. When Minnie left for her new job, Jaap went to stay with Anneke and Johan. Minnie found work as a maid for the actor and actress, Jan Musch and Mary Smithuizen, who worked with the resistance. At this time, Jaap was traveling with her sister, Edith, who had the false identity, Aurelia Ledeboer, to a village to exchange fabric for food. Jaap became ill with appendicitis, but they found a surgeon, Hilversum, who operated and did not expose him as a Jew.
After the war ended in spring 1944, Minnie began to get mail from other parts of the country. She received letters from her parents in Amsterdam. However, she did not know where Clara was located. She registered that she was searching for her and put their names on various lists around Holland. One day about a month later, she was contacted by Gerard van Hoef in Bossum who told her that he and his wife had taken in Clara and hidden her during the war. The couple was honored by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations in 1977. Mother and daughter were reunited. Clara now rejected Judaism, but Minnie insisted that she attend Jewish summer camp. They returned to Enschede and found strangers living in their apartment and all their belongings gone.
Minnie then relocated the family to Amsterdam. Because Clara had missed so much school, she had to attend Jewish high school for two years, although she did not graduate. Jaap returned to school but could not finish because he became ill; Minnie then enrolled him in an academy in Haarlem. Her parents, Isidoor and Clara, had survived the war in hiding. Isidoor had been interned briefly at Westerbork and their belongings were confiscated, but they were able to remain in their apartment in the early years of occupation. Isidoor had been Parnassim (trustees) of their synagogue with two other men, Sieg Menko and Gerard Sanders, which became the Jewish Council during the war. He was also the treasurer and he often had to inform families that their loved ones who had been sent to work camps had been killed. As persecutions worsened in 1942/3, they left Enschede for Boekelo where they were given refuge with the family of Henk and Wies van Heek. Minnie's mother knitted items for the family and her father helped in the kitchen. When Mr. van Heek had to hide as he worked illegally, the couple returned to Enschede and stayed with three different households until the liberation. Isidoor died in 192 and Clara died in 1964. Minnie died, age 95, in Haifa on April 2, 2002.
