Montreal, Dutch families united by show of courage
Montreal woman meets grandson of Dutch couple who hid her mother from Nazis
Growing up in a Jewish family in Montreal, Suzie EpelbaumLazar’s mother would sing her Dutch Christmas songs. Living in the Netherlands, Marco Blum’s mother would always talk about the young Jewish girl with whom she shared a bed during the war.
Last week, the two met to trade notes about the act of heroism during the Holocaust that marked both families.
When she was 12, EpelbaumLazar’s mother, Esther Vomberg, spent three years from 1942-45 living with Blum’s grandparents, Frederik and Tonia Nijkamp, and their four children in Vledderveen. The small farming village in the northeast Dutch province of Groningen is a stone’s throw from both the German border and a transit camp in Westerbroek where Jews were transported to concentration camps and death camps.
“My grandfather hated the Nazis and all they represented, so for him, this was a natural thing to do,” Blum said after visiting the Montreal Holocaust Museum.
“I always thought that this is just what people did back then, but realized in the last few years how rare and dangerous this really was.”
CAME BACK EVERY NIGHT
The Nijkamps also harboured another Jewish family of three on the top floor of the house.
“I imagine they were doing nothing else but making up lies and trying to get enough food for the family,” Blum said. “It was a small village, so everyone knew they had six people in their family. They would have to go to other villages to get food (for 10 people).”
The situation become more perilous one day in 1944 when local police stopped by and discovered Vomberg hiding in her bed. Frederik was arrested.
“My grandmother thought they would come back to arrest her, but they forgot,” Blum said. “She sent ( Vomberg ) to live with a local farmer, so when police eventually came back, she just told them the Jewish girl ran away. But police would come back every night to look for (Vomberg).”
After the arrest, the other Jewish family spent six weeks living in the crawl space of the church where Frederik worked, a tiny, damp room just three feet high.
Frederik was transported to a transit camp, and later to a concentration camp, and endured forced labour until the end of the war. When it was over, he walked back home from Germany — a trek of about 600 kilometres.
‘ONLY ONE PUNISHMENT’
Blum said, until he did research, he had never understood why his grandparents weren’t killed right after Vomberg was discovered.
“There was only one punishment for helping Jews, and that was execution,” he said. Whether a clerical error, or because he was sympathetic, “a policeman in Holland put on the arrest paper that (Frederik) was taken in for black market trade.”
Both Blum and Epelbaum-Lazar have been retracing the story, searching for 80-year-old documents, and interviewing the few people left who remember the events from the time of the war. They have been trading documents and anecdotes since making contact through LinkedIn last year.
Blum’s grandmother died more than 20 years ago. His mother, Ineke, 84, was a child so she doesn’t know many details.
Vomberg died when EpelbaumLazar was a teenager, so retracing the family story has allowed her to get closer to her mother all these years later.
Vomberg ’s story is remarkable: Not only did she make it through the war alive, but her parents, brother and sister also hid with different families in the area, and none were discovered. The Vomberg family was reunited after the war. The parents remained in Holland, while the three children eventually moved to Montreal.
Over the years, the Nijkamps and the Vombergs kept in touch. Esther Vomberg visited the Nijkamps every summer when her children were in summer camp. But Epelbaum-Lazar met the family that hid her mother only last year.
‘POSITIVE EXPERIENCE’
Epelbaum-Lazar retraced her mother’s steps, visiting the town where she spent time, and seeing the house where she was hidden. Speaking with Ineke gave her a living connection to a pivotal time in her mother’s life.
“I told them about things my mother had told me about their family. They weren’t sad things, because she had a very positive experience. She celebrated Christmas. She knew all the Christmas songs and she knew them perfectly, which we thought was very interesting because she came from a modern Orthodox family. I got the impression that all Dutch people were wonderful people because of how she talked about them.”
Last week was Blum’s first time visiting Montreal. He made the trip with his wife and seven-year-old son. Blum met Epelbaum-Lazar’s husband and two daughters. He also visited two of her three sisters.
“When I went to see them, I don’t really know them, but they tell me: ‘You’re family to us,’ ” Blum said. “It’s very special. We had some great talks.”
Epelbaum-Lazar and Blum are each writing a book about the story from the perspective of their families.
Epelbaum-Lazar said her book will be geared toward teenagers.
“It’s such a fabulous story, I want it to be a resource, and I want my kids and nieces and nephews to know about their history,” she said.
We have to keep the story alive, and try to make this world a little bit better by telling these stories. We think it’s very important.
‘KEEP THE STORY ALIVE’
Blum said he wants to write down the story so his family can have a written record of his grandparents’ heroics.
“We have to keep the story alive, and try to make this world a little bit better by telling these stories. We think it’s very important.”
Although Blum’s grandparents were posthumously honoured by Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in 2006, Epelbaum-Lazar said it’s her duty to carry the story forward.
“We need to show (the Nijkamps) respect for what they did and do good deeds in their honour, because what they did is priceless.”
Esther Vomberg is survived by four daughters and 10 grandchildren, so the Nijkamps’ sacrifice saved not just one 12-year-old girl, but 14 others spanning three generations.