Rachel from Meppel rescues historical elements from a former Jewish butcher’s shop on Woldstraat. ‘Unbelievable that Jewish heritage is disappearing from Meppel again: really unacceptable’

To the dismay of local residents and the Jewish Rachel van Gelder, the rear part of the house from 1807 has now been demolished. This means that the old smoke ovens and the brine cellar of the Jewish butcher family Frank and the Van de Rhoer family have been completely destroyed. “I think it’s really crazy that the butcher shop was finally crushed. In Meppel there seems to be no sense of history at all. I don’t think anyone has ever asked whether any surviving relatives of the family are still alive, which is idiotic,” says Van Gelder sadly.

Crib

The resident of Meppel managed to save four iron smoke-resistant oven doors and an iron crib from destruction. The cot probably belonged to the Jewish Levi Leopold van de Rhoer. He died a month after his birth. His parents Samuel van de Rhoer and Sara Böttigheimer, who ran the butcher’s shop here, were both taken from their home and murdered in Auschwitz. “When I heard that apartments would be built in the building, I asked the construction workers what would happen to the items. According to them, everything went down,” says Van Gelder. “Then I asked if I could have the elements, which are all completely original.”

So it happened. The objects are now with Van Gelder in the backyard of her home: “We brought the objects to our house by car. Quite a job, they are heavy doors. Of course it had to withstand the heat.”

‘You can’t save everything, madam’

Before the demolition of the back house, Van Gelder contacted the municipality about preserving the butcher’s shop. Without success: “I was told: ‘You can’t save everything, madam’. Incredible, right? So much has already been demolished in Meppel.”

In a written response, the municipality stated: ‘This location is neither a protected cityscape, nor an iconic or characteristic building, nor a monument. If these forms of (pre)protection are lacking, as is the case at Woldstraat 58, an owner of the object in principle has freedom of action. However, a demolition notification must be submitted. A demolition notification only concerns demolition safety. The demolition notification for this building was received and accepted in May 2023.’

Starting point

According to Van Gelder, another piece of history in the city center will be lost with the demolition. “The flues were even clearly visible. Those were blackened stones, unfortunately I couldn’t do anything with them. But something like a glass plate could have been placed in front of it, with an information board about the history of the butcher’s shop,” says the resident of Meppel. “Preserving this butcher shop could have been a starting point to continue the conversation about history. I think that is very important. In memory of the family.”

She continues: “In the context of education, but also in the context of the fact that more and more children are becoming more distant from what happened, this should have been preserved. Just like the Jewish monument that exists in Meppel, we could have shown that it was still there. That is no longer possible and I really don’t think that is possible. The family itself has been erased and now also their butcher shop. It’s sad.”

The objects will remain in Van Gelder’s garden for the time being. She hopes to soon come into contact with the descendants of the Van de Rhoer family. “At least now they have a choice, do they want to do something with it or not? If they were destroyed by now, a choice had already been made for them. It must have belonged to their family. That affects me enormously, I am of Jewish descent myself. Many of my relatives never returned.”