It’s harder than they thought. The volunteers of the Stumblestones Haarlem Foundation who want to give all 733 killed Haarlem Jews a memorial stone, have to pull out all the stops to find next of kin for the solemn ceremony. Fate cooperated in the sixth series of revelations: Jaap, Jisca and Marjo were able to reveal stumbling stones out of respect.
On May 4, Marjo Cohen Rodrigues was bored. The Amsterdam resident normally goes to the Hollandse Schouwburg on that day for the memorial meeting, but it is currently being renovated and so she was at home. “So I thought I wanted to arrange a stumbling stone for my Haarlem relatives and then I found out on the internet that one had already been arranged for them by the foundation.”
“They walked the sidewalk here every day”
Six days later, together with her daughter and a niece, she is present at the unveiling of the stones for Abraham and Flora Cohen Rodrigues on the sidewalk of President Steijnstraat. Marjo thinks it’s an important moment. “It’s like a small funeral. And then I think it’s even more important to remember them here than at the Jewish Monument. Here they walked every day on the sidewalk.”
Her cousin Rachel, who was named after the youngest child of Abraham and Flora, who also did not survive the war, now also pays more attention to her murdered relatives than on 4 May.
The fact that the Cohen Rodrigues family was not immediately found by the Stichting Struikelstenen Haarlem is probably due to the common surname, says Clara Kemper. “Even if the family has left all the way from Haarlem, it will be a lot more difficult to find them.
Clara is one of the volunteers who scours the internet and the archives, looking for next of kin. Because that’s important to her. “Of course! Because you don’t do it for yourself, but to bring those 733 Jews back to Haarlem and to their families.”
“We had to promise our father in his last hour that we would go here on his behalf”
That it is important that the killed Jews return to Haarlem is evident from the story of Hans and Barend. When the war broke out, they were street friends just down the road in the President Steijnstraat in the Transvaalbuurt. On May 11, 1943, exactly 80 years ago, Hans Brokaar saw how Barend, who was then 14 years old, was taken out of the house with his father and mother.
Mention names, don’t forget
“That left a huge impression on my father,” recalls Peter Brokaar. He is with his sister Dorothee at the unveiling of the stumbling stones. Their father Hans passed away last February. “We had to promise our father in his last hour that we would go here on his behalf,” says Dorothee. The three stones for Jacob, Anna and Barend Walvisch have been requested by them. It’s the least they can do for their father. “He was so angry as a boy that he wanted to kick those Krauts,” says Peter Brokaar.
She is extremely grateful to surviving relative Jaap Walvisch. He also accidentally found out that stumbling stones are being placed in Haarlem for his ancestors. For the occasion, he has gone through the entire family history. Because he didn’t know much about it. “We weren’t talking about it.” But he is now very happy that the names of Jacob, Anna and Barend are mentioned and are therefore not forgotten.
Jaap Walvisch can now tell his story because he read Reini Elkerbout’s appeal. This volunteer of Stichting Struikelstenen Haarlem leaves, wherever she can, those appeals for relatives. “I know that it will not work with all 733 stones. As a grandchild, I myself was at stumbling stones for my relatives, but you hardly ever get a closer bond,” she says.
Family Soup Kitchen in Haarlem Secret Annex
This is evident from the story of Ruud Gaarkeuken. He is related to Salomon, Grietje and their son Machiel Gaarkeuken, who received a stone on the sidewalk in front of an Italian restaurant on the Grote Markt. There they lived and there they built a hidden back house as a hiding place. They were discovered on 25 August 1942, taken to Westerbork and gassed a few days later in Auschwitz.
Ruud Gaarkeuken traveled two hours from his home on the Belgian border to attend the unveiling by another family member, Jisca Visser. “There aren’t many soup kitchens left, so it must be family. But it’s a dead end, so I’m not quite sure how I’m related.” While the chef takes the bruschettas out of the oven, Ruud is allowed to have his photo taken in the former hiding room.
Mystery of the missing documents
Not much is known about Salomon and Grietje Gaarkeuken. That could have been different. Restaurant owner Donato Ditano found newspaper clippings, photos, diaries and financial documents when he accidentally discovered the Secret Annex during a renovation.
He took them in a box to a counter of the municipality, which was then located in the Brinkmannpassage a little further on the Grote Markt. Despite frantic efforts by politicians and researchers, these documents never surfaced. When the Gaarkeuken family’s stumbling stones are revealed, things are bubbling again among the family members and other guests. Maybe fate can lend a hand now too.
Watch here the report about the Haarlem Secret Annex in the Italian restaurant, where Salomon and Grietje tried in vain to hide from the German occupier.
The hidden secret annex – NH News / Geja Sikma