May 4 this year was a special day for 79-year-old Ben Gazan. He visited the house on the Handweg in Amstelveen where his father, mother, sisters and brother lived during the Second World War. Stolpersteine have recently been placed in front of the house for Benjamin and Adolf Gazan, Ben’s father and brother, who did not survive the war.
Using old photos, Ben tries to complete the puzzle pieces of his family history and put them in the right place. He is warmly welcomed by Wim and Johanna Ravesloot, who now live at the address. They give Ben an extensive tour and show him the shed in the backyard where his father’s dental practice was once located.
Ben brought some old photos with him. His brother Adolf, for example, whom he never knew. Adolf died in the Mauthausen concentration camp during the war and was only 17 years old.
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From the garden where his family took a family photo decades ago in front of a fence that is no longer there, Ben looks out over the Poel. He tells about his sisters who experienced the bombing of Schiphol. “The planes flew over here and my sisters thought they were going off fireworks when they saw the explosions. My mother saw that it was not right and roared up to them to come down.”
“Of course there was no place for such a small screaming ugly, so I was abandoned”
It was this event that made such a deep impression that the family decided to go into hiding. In 1942 Ben was born at the hiding place in Arnhem. “There was, of course, no place for such a little screaming ugly, so I was brought to Amstelveen by the resistance and laid there for a foundling,” says Ben.
He will spend the next few years in foster care. His father will eventually never see Ben again. Benjamin Gazan dies at the hiding place of a kidney disease, because he cannot get medical help. His body is initially buried under the kitchen floor of the house.
“When they came to lay it, it was like having a little funeral
For Benjamin and Adolf Gazan, a Stolperstein has recently been placed at their old address on the Handweg. After years of grief, this is extremely important to Ben. “When they came to lay him, it was like having a little funeral,” he describes that moment. “Somehow, because of the Stolpersteine, this has become a place of: ‘This is where the Gazan family lived'”, he continues emotionally.
Current resident Wim says he is proud of the Stolpersteine in front of his home. “I think it’s beautiful. We as humanity still have something on our conscience and it is nice to commemorate the Jew in this way.”
His wife Johanna promises to polish the stones regularly, so that they continue to shine beautifully and continue to do what they are meant to do: make people stumble over the Holocaust.