van Leeuwen and de Groot family photographs

Rachel Barish was born Rachel (Chellie) van Leeuwen on September 21, 1936 in the Hague, Netherlands, to Judith Degroot and Isaac van Leeuwen. Her older sister Elly had been born in 1931, her family had lived in the Hague for generations, and her father owned a bicycle and small appliance shop. In May 1940, the Germans invaded the Netherlands, and the following year, Isaac volunteered to go to Westerbork (established in October 1939). He joined one of the first transports to the camp after believing a promise that in return his family would remain unmolested. He is believed to have been deported to Monowitz (Auschwitz III, established in October 1942) and perished there. Judith initially wanted to remain with her husband, but acquaintances in the underground convinced her to try to save her daughters. In 1942 Judith placed Elly and Chellie in hiding and spent the rest of the war working as a weapons courier for the Dutch resistance using false papers. Chellie, using the false name Loesje Frederiks, was placed with a Catholic family in a small town in the provenance of Limburg, and Elly was was hidden in several places and finally ended up with Johannes and Katarina Maria den Hollander. After liberation Judith learned the whereabouts of her daughters from the underground and came to pick them up. Judith supported her daughters by working as a prison warden for female collaborators. Chellie immigrated to the United States in 1958 and married Jerry Barish.