{"id":431,"date":"2013-10-23T07:27:21","date_gmt":"2013-10-23T11:27:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dutchgenie.net\/wordpress\/?p=431"},"modified":"2013-12-26T13:19:02","modified_gmt":"2013-12-26T18:19:02","slug":"aunt-sophie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/dutchgenie.net\/wordpress\/2013\/10\/aunt-sophie\/","title":{"rendered":"Aunt Sophie"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sophia Lichtenstein<\/a> (Dutch link<\/a>) was born on 10 May 1904 in J\u00fclich. She married her first husband Max Baum there on 1 Feb 1935. \u00a0For a while they lived in Linnich (Kirchstr. 12), but in 1938 they moved to Doenrade in the Netherlands. There they lived at\u00a0Kerkstraat 74.\u00a0\u00a0The house had a cafe at the first floor and two apartments on the second floor. Max and Sophie lived on the right hand side (in the photo bikes are parked in front of the house). \u00a0According to Red Cross data, Max worked as a \"res09278\"<\/a>mechanic and chauffeur to make a living, but according to Rosemary Smeets (pers. correspondence) Max owned a furniture store. \u00a0He employed a young secretary, with whom they seemed to have had a good relationship. For a while life went on with all the restrictions that living in occupied territory brings with it.<\/p>\n

But on\u00a025 Aug 1942 the Germans burst into the store, and arrested Sophie and Max. Who betrayed them is not known.<\/p>\n

They had to go by tram to the Sittard train station, and from there were sent to Westerbork in Drenthe, a transit camp. From there they were sent to Camp Vught, where Max was forced to work for the Germans. In the summer of 1943 they were sent back to Westerbork, to be transported to Auschwitz two months later. \u00a0Max died in teh hospital in\u00a0\u00a0Auschwitz III (Monowitz-Buna). \u00a0Sophie was the subject of medical experiments, which were led by SS-Brigadef\u00fchrer Prof. Clauberg. She was sent to various camps, but eventually did survive the war.<\/p>\n

Many books are written about the experiences in the camps. Helga Herzberg, a survivor, wrote “Through the Eye of the Needle” in 2006. She meets Sophie in Birkenau, Block 19 in April of 1944. She writes (pg.43-44, loosely translated):<\/p>\n

From the group I slept with, I got along best with Sophie, a Jewsih woman from Geleen. She was twice as old as I was, but escaped the selection, prrobably because she looked very young for her age.<\/p>\n

We slept with six people on one bunk.\u00a0Everyone was cold, because there was no heat, no mattresses, you had to share one blanket with six people. We alternated who slept in the middle, which was the warmest place.<\/p>\n

One of the worst things was standing at roll call. We had to stand for hours \u00a0without moving, if you moved you got beaten. The supposed purpose was to see if everyone was present, but the numbers were never right. After roll call we got thin soup in a large container without spoons. This was for everyone, and frequently fights broke out because someone was perceived as taking more than their share.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And that is only the beginning. Eventually Sophie and Helga are liberated by the Allies.<\/p>\n

In 2009 I was contacted by\u00a0Drs. Rosemarie M. C. Smeets. She is writing a book about the history of the village of Doenrade. \u00a0She wanted to know what I knew about Sophie, and gave us some more information, and the picture of the house. The book has not appeared yet, however.<\/p>\n

Recently we were notified that the town of Geleen (the village of Doenrade is part of Geleen) want to name a street after Sophie and Max. We are a bit ambivalent about all this sudden interest. Yes we want people to remember Sophie and Max, and especially we want people to remember the atrocities that happened in the war, but why now, after more than 50 years? \u00a0Is it still guilt, or a real desire to try to make something right? Or what?<\/p>\n

I’m puzzled.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sophia Lichtenstein (Dutch link) was born on 10 May 1904 in J\u00fclich. She married her first husband Max Baum there on 1 Feb 1935. \u00a0For a while they lived in Linnich (Kirchstr. 12), but in 1938 they moved to Doenrade in the Netherlands. There they lived at\u00a0Kerkstraat 74.\u00a0\u00a0The house had …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family","column","onecol"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/dutchgenie.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/dutchgenie.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/dutchgenie.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dutchgenie.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dutchgenie.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=431"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/dutchgenie.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":433,"href":"http:\/\/dutchgenie.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431\/revisions\/433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/dutchgenie.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dutchgenie.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dutchgenie.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}