What I can’t really imagine is that Dutch police officers went to that address in Amsterdam-west, rang the bell and dragged me along. I was three years old. My mind stops there. How is that possible!” Lous Steenhuis-Hoepelman speaks in Rob Trip’s podcast The unknown children of Camp Westerbork† She was arrested and imprisoned in the House of Detention on the Weteringschans. There she sat, dead alone. A Jewish toddler who was betrayed. The Jew hunters did not take age into account, Jew was Jew. Fortunately, Lous can’t remember. It wasn’t until her own granddaughter was three that she thought: Jesus, look at her hopping and being merry, I was in prison at that age, unimaginable.”
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of 21 May 2022