Tallit and storage pouch buried and recovered by a Dutch Jewish family

Leo Roos was born on November 10, 1937, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, to a Jewish couple, Andries and Roosje (Rozet) Agsteribbe Roos. Andries was born on December 16, 1901, and Rozet was born on March 6, 1905, both in Amsterdam. Andries had eight siblings and Rozet had two. Andries and Rozet were married on December 24, 1930. Both of their families had lived in the Netherlands for centuries. Andries’s brother Abraham married Rozet’s sister Rachel. Rozet was a seamstress and Andries sold leather goods and traveled for work. Andries, Rozet, and Leo moved to a town outside of Amsterdam. They lived with Leo’s aunt and uncle, Abraham and Rachel, who had a daughter, Helene (Leni) in 1940.

On May 10, 1940, Germany invaded the Netherlands. After the invasion, Leo and his family moved back to Amsterdam with Abraham, Rachel, and Leni. When anti-Jewish restrictions prevented Andries from traveling, he worked with his brothers in their watch store. As the persecution of Jews worsened, the family decided to go into hiding. Andries, Rozet, Abraham, and Rachel were not able to bring their young children into hiding with them because it was too risky. In summer 1940, Leo and his cousin Leni were sent to a children’s home in Heemstede, where Leo was molested. After three months, the home was raided by the German SS and all circumcised boys and Jewish looking girls were taken. Leo was sent to a collection center in Amsterdam. Leni, who did not appear Jewish, was not selected and remained in the home. Andries and Rozet were given refuge in the apartment of a resistance member in Amsterdam. Abraham and Rachel, who was pregnant, were in hiding elsewhere. Andries was active in the Dutch resistance and was a talented forger who made ID cards and ration cards. He was informed that Leo was in the collection center and arranged to have him rescued during transport to Westerbork transit camp. Members of the underground blew up the train tracks and took children off the train. The man who was hiding Andries and Rozet brought Leo to the apartment in Amsterdam and the family was reunited. Leo was very sick when he arrived, but a doctor in the resistance took care of him. Leo had to sit quietly all day so the neighbors below would not hear him. They stayed there until early 1941, when a neighbor found out about them. They were then placed with the Van Grinten family in another area of Amsterdam. The Germans had deported Mr. Van Grinten to a concentration camp because he was a Communist.

In 1943, the resistance moved Andries, Rozet, and Leo to Ede. They stayed with a poor family who took them in for money. Andries and Rozet worked for the family, making clay beads. Andries continued making false papers for the underground. In early 1944, the resistance,was warned of a raid and moved them to Heelsum, near Arnhem. They stayed with a pastor who treated them well. Leo’s parents started bleaching his hair and eyebrows so that he appeared less Jewish and could play outside. On September 17, 1944, as part of Operation Market Garden, an Allied plan to liberate the region, American paratroopers were dropped into the area around Arnhem, including Heelsum. Leo and his family believed they were liberated and came out of hiding. When the German counterattack began, they were caught between US and German troops and hid in the cellar for two weeks while the fighting continued around them. The German Army began evacuating Dutch civilians from the area and moving them toward Ede. Andries tried to take his family toward Lunteren. They were arrested by the German SS, but overnight, two young German soldiers let them go. They went to Wageningen and were placed in hiding with another family. In early November, the farm was raided by German authorities. Andries told Rozet and Leo to run and stayed behind to hide his forging plates. Rozet and Leo escaped to a farm in Lunteren. After a week, Rozet was told that Andries had been caught with the forging equipment. On November 9, 1944, 42 year old Andries was shot by a firing squad in Apeldoorn for being a member of the resistance. In May 1945, Leo and Rozet were liberated in Lunteren. The war ended when Germany surrendered on May 7.

In late 1945, Leo and Rozet returned to Amsterdam. They went to the Red Cross office to view the lists of those had survived the war. Some of Leo’s paternal aunts and uncles had survived, but most of their family had been deported to Auschwitz and killed: Leo’s maternal grandparents, Joseph and Kaatje, killed on September 24, 1942; Leo’s paternal grandparents, Hartog and Leentje, killed on February 12, 1943; Leo’s maternal aunt, Sophia Klint, killed on November 19, 1943; Leo’s maternal uncle, Jakob Klint, killed on March 31, 1944; Leo’s maternal aunt Rachel and her daughter Carla (b. 1943), killed on January 28, 1944; and Leo’s parental uncle Abraham Meijer Roos, killed on January 1, 1945. They learned that Leo’s cousin, Leni, was alive and living with a Protestant family. Rozet sought and won custody for Leni and she moved in with Rozet and Leo. Leo entered school and had difficulty catching up. He had never attended school, although Andries had taught him to read. The other children made antisemitic remarks and hit him, so he was put in a Jewish school. On January 25, 1950, Rozet, Leo, and Leni left Holland, sailing from Rotterdam on the SS Veendam and arriving in New York on February 7. Rozet was unable to care for both children by herself, so she gave Leni to a relative. In 1951, Rozet married Joel Trompetter (1909-1973). Joel was a survivor from Amsterdam who had been imprisoned in Auschwitz, Mauthausen, and Ebensee concentration camps. Leo got his Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from the City College of New York, where he met Sonya Ingrid Rosenfeld (b. 1940). Sonya’s parents had fled from Frankfurt, Germany, to London in 1940. In January 1960, Leo and Sonya married. They have three children. In 1965, Leo received his PhD in chemistry from the University of Cincinnati and worked as a research chemist. Rozet, age 98, died on July 10, 2003.

Abraham Agsteribbe was born on March 25, 1842, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, to a Sephardic Jewish couple, Joseph Abraham Agsteribbe (1814-1854) and Sophia Harris Agsteribbe (b. 1814). The Agsteribbe family had lived in the Netherlands for centuries. Their ancestors had fled Spain and Portugal during the Spanish Inquisition in the 1500’s. Abraham had four siblings: Isaac (1843-1909), Elisabeth Betje (1845-1876), Marcus (1847-1920), and Naatje (1851-1933). In 1866, Abraham married Aaltje Vischjager (b.1841). They had a daughter, Sophia (1868-1919). After Aaltje died, Abraham married Roosje Deen (b. 1846) in 1878. The couple had four children: Joseph (1879-1942), Meyer (1881-1942), Leentje (1882-1943), and Isaac (b. 1889). Abraham, age 68, died on January 1, 1911.