The End…

I had a lot of fun writing this blog, and I learned lot’s of things about the Holocaust and WWII and I hope you did too.
Joseph Heinrich died November 4, 1944 at the age of 68. His wife still lives to tell about Joseph’s true story about bravery, hope, and courage.

By the way, I would like to thank this site for providing great information that helped me out immensley with my blog, Thank You!!!

Joaeph’s conclusion part 1

In February of 1944, Joop (remember him?) and his group arranged for Joseph and HIS group to go over the Pyrenees mountains into Spain. Joop made contact with a Jewish French Marquis group, and they knew a whole bunch of people and smugglers who knew the mountains. Joop went to the mountains to say goodbye to Joseph and was caught with the false papers of a man the german’s were looking for, Joseph never saw, or heard from him again.
The smugglers braught the group to the half way point at the peak of the Pyrenees at 3,000 meters, there, they pointed out the way to spain and left.
How would you feel if you were running from the law, cold, hungry, and desperate for freedom somewhere in a mountain 3,000 meters from sea level,in 14 feet of snow, and then you’re guide in these treachourous conditions abandons you with little instructions on what to do next? I would feel a little hopeless, wouldn’t you?
Anyway, after that they hiked for three more day’s in the mountains until they came upona village at the foot of the mountains. The people asked where they had came from, when they answered Pic de Montaville (the name of the mountain peak) the people didn’t beleive them. “No, not in February” they said, “that’s impossible!” but Joseph and his group had finally made it to Freedom!!!

Poll

Joseph and his story continued

                  I can explain why it’s been forever since my last post. You see, we live where we can’t get Internet connection so we have to you a Verizon net card, and a little while ago the net card broke, which meant that I couldn’t blog. So now I’m blogging again!

    Back to Joseph.

          At one point, France started taking in pioneer children because they thought that it would make things better in Holland. Joseph left in April 1943 with his brother.

They were trying to make it to the American Army in Spain but were caught on the way.

   They had made it to Antwerp where they waited in a small little pub for a guide to Spain. While they were waiting two more boy’s showed up, then more, and more, then there were ten boy’s in the pub. the guide had made two trips but the boy’s didn’t know that the second time he was caught. So they waited and waited until some lady told a German guard that there were ten Jews in a pub. Thank goodness they all had papers. The papers said that they were Germans working in France, so the boy’s lied and said they were homesick and came home for a little while. They were put on a train to La Manche France, about twenty miles south of  Bologne.

  They worked in France for about eight months, receiving wages and feeling good about themselves. They were always in constant contact with the Westerweel group because they were allways taking people to the border.

Joseph Continues Underground

Sadly, Joseph and Mirjam didn’t meet again until after the war was over, but the a Loosdrecht leader  who married Mirjam, Joseph met often.  Joseph also saw much of the teacher Jan smith, who was a teacher from the Werkplaats.

    Menachem was a worker at the Aliyah house teaching and leading, but he was an engineer by profession. Lodi Cohen was the head leader of the Loosdrecht leaders, while Menachem was after him. altogether there were four of them, Hanna Asher and Adina Simone were the other two. Shushu was married to Simone.

         One day, Joseph and a boy named Dov Aschiem thought that they should run away from Loosdrecht.  They made a connection with the village secretary to provide fake Identities without the Jew stamp on them. They were all set to go when Menachem took Joseph aside and changed his mind for him.

     What a great thing for Menachem to do, he could have let Joseph and Dov go because it would have been less on him, but He knew that Joseph and Dov would probably be caught.

    The people who took part in hiding the kids were very dedicated, Shushu was caught in Switzerland, he asked for a razor blade,  then committed suicide out of fear that he would say to much.

  I know that even in circumstances like that, suicide is not O.K., but that just shows how much the Loosddrecht leader’s cared for the children they took care of.

Joseph Goes Undreground

Josephs first underground home that he was sent to was in Arnhem to the home of a painter. There was a group of eight or nine boy’s in the painter’s home.

    how do you think the painter felt in Nazi occupied country with eight or Jewish children in you’re home? would you have been brave enough to do that?

   Anyway, The painters girlfriend had been arrested by the Nazi police just two or three day’s after Joseph and the group had arrived, so they had to quickly leave. Then, soon after they left, they were taken to another location in Arnhem. a couple of day’s later, Joseph, his brother, and non-Jew Dutch boy went to yet another location in Appledorn.

     How would you have liked it if you had to move around all the time. not to mention acting like nothing was wrong in public all the while being pursued by Nazi police! I don’t know about you, but I don’t kneed that kind of excitement in my life.

   back to the story, the man they were sent to was a communist by the name of Urban. Urban was arrested one night for some unknown reason. So at two in the morning Joseph, his brother, and the Dutch boy ran away in the wet and cold rain.

They stood in the rain getting soaked all night long(talk about being miserable). Then in the morning they took a bus to Amsterdam where they met with some members of the Westerweel group. They were then sent to another place.

After the Werkplaats

Sorry it’s been forever since my last blog, but things have been hectic around my house.  

On May 10 ,  1940, when war broke out in Holland, the orphanage director sent Joseph to a Youth Aliyah group in Zeeland.

  Then the Germans started to evacuate all the Jew’s  so he ended up only staying two or three weeks. Then, he went to Aliyah house in Loosdrecht. there were about 50 girls and boys at Joseph’s age there in Loosdrecht. Apparently Mirjam’s house was only about 100 meters away!  One day day an order came for all the children to go to the Westerbork concentration camp, but they were hidden instead. The leaders from Loosdrecht and several leaders from the Werkeplaats formed a group, the leader of this group was Joop Westerweel. Identity cards were prepared for by the Dutch Government. This made it difficult for underground work, because everyone had an Identity card. Joop didn’t want one for his family, but when he started doing underground work, he took a fake one. When Joop and his wife Willie were caught, All of their children were hidden. In order to work underground, Joop quit his teaching job, Because working underground was a full time job. German’s everywhere, transportation issues, raid’s . The people who helped were obviously very dedicated.

Heinrich and the Werkplaats

              When Joseph, Asher, and Lorle (I don’t know if you remember, but they were two of his siblings) reached Holland, they were put in a refugee home in Den Dolder.  Close by was a school named the Children’s Werekeplaats. Kee’s Boeke managed this Private school. Mirjam Waterman was one of the teachers there. One of Mirjam’s students once recommended teaching the children at the refugee home. Kee’s Boeke thought this a wonderfull idea, and so the children at the refugee home were taught at the Children’s werkeplaats. The teacher Mirjam and Joseph became very close, Mirjam once gave Joseph a bike as a gift and so every day after school, Joseph would ride to Mirjam’s parent’s house where she still lived. Mirjams family became like Joseph’s family, that is how close they were. All of a sudden, in 1939, after Hitler started the war, the children of the refugee home were sent to live with families all over Holland. Lorle went to live in Freisland where she stayed safely until after the war. Asher went to Bilthoven, and Joseph went to an Orphanage in Utrecht.

More on Joseph Heinrich

     Sorry it has been a while since my last post, I’ve been kind of busy and haven’t had the time. 

         anyway…

                   when I last left off, Joseph and the group of children had just gotten off the train to find a committee of photographers and journalists who asked a series of questions about life in Germany.

   If I were Joseph I probably wouldn’t tell them anything, they would probably just twist it up and tell the public lies to ensure that the people would not revolt against Germany for their wrong doings.

     But I don’t know, that’s just me.

   The day after their arrival the people looking after Joseph and the other children told them to write to their parents just to update them on current events every week. All of the children’s parents wrote back.

 Joseph found out that his father was at the Buchenwald concentration camp but then escaped using false papers.

  when Poland was invaded by Germany Josephs mother told his father to leave or they would arrest him again, which he did but Joseph never heard from his mother again.

 Apparently, He had a brave dad and mom, It was very brave of her to send her husband away to safety. although, I’m not sure why she didn’t go into hiding herself.

    His father was on the last train that crossed the Holland border then was on the last boat to England from Holland. He was then arrested for being an “enemy alien” and was then sent to a concentration camp on Isles of Mann where he shared his stay with Nazi’s, the same people who tried to arrest Him!

     Josephs Father seemed to be about 80% percent lucky, you know, the last train, and the last boat.   But he’s he’s 20% unlucky,  getting stuck in a English concentration camp with NAZI’S!!!

   How do you think Joseph felt, he knew his parent’s were both in danger while he was safe with the women and 25 other children. Maybe he felt a Little guilty? I’m not sure.  I do know that he would not be safe forever, he had a long and dangerous journey ahead.

Introducing Joseph Heinrich

Joseph’s family was a Jewish, middle class family, living in Frankfort am Main, Germany.  He had 9 siblings. When he was just 13 years old, four of his siblings had allready left for Palestine.

It was November 9, 1938 and Joseph stood in his house and watched from a window as the synagogue across the street burned. Eventually people barged into his house and smashed everything in site.  Joseph tried to get the cops but they ignored the 14 year old.  Joseph and his family then took a cab to his Aunt’s house. The next day the German police came to their door looking to arrest Josephs uncle. When Josephs Father wouldn’t let them, they arrested him too.

 Josephs father must have been a very brave man, he probably knew that he was going to get arrested but he stood up for his brother- in law anyway.

Then, on the 15th of November Joseph and his two siblings, Asher and Lorle were sent to Holland by his mother with 25 other children  put together by some Jewish women.

When he arrived at the Dutch border, a couple of German officers put them in a room with no toilet or any other essentials.

They were told they were not allowed to cry. I’m not sure how I would have held up in his position. They must have been in that tiny room for at least six hour’s.

 they did not leave that room until they were put on another train.

Then they crossed the border into Holland where they were greeted by a committee waiting there for them.  

                              To be continued…