MAIL: natali627@gmail.com; noabh40@gmail.com
Survivor: Code: RelatioNetNADE19GOHO
Family Name: Dekel
First Name: Nanny
Father Name: Itzhak
Mother Name: Sara
Sister Name: Simona
Date of birth: 1919
Country ofbirth: Holand
City of Birth: Gauda
Summary of the Survivor's City Before, During and
After the war
Gouda
During
the early years of the community, the Jews of Gouda gathered to pray in a
private residence on the Lange Groenendaal. In 1798, the community purchased a
former Anabaptist church building on the Turfmarkt and refurnished it as a
synagogue. The building eventually fell into disrepair and was replaced with a
new structure built on the same site in 1827.
In
1815, the Gouda community received permission to establish a cemetery of its
own on the Boelekade, near the present-day Kleiwegplein. Prior to then, the
Jews of Gouda had buried their dead in the Jewish cemetery at Rotterdam. The cemetery on
the Boelekade was expanded in 1846 and once again in 1856. In 1930, the Gouda
community opened a new cemetery located on the Bloemendaalse Verlaat in the
direction of Waddinxveen.
The
Gouda community was governed by a community directorate and council, the second
of which also served as council for distributing aid to the poor. Jewish
voluntary organizations in Gouda included a burial society, a fellowship for
the study of the Talmud, and a women's organization. The Gouda community also
maintained a poorhouse, a home for the elderly, and a Jewish school. During the
nineteenth century, most Jews in Gouda worked as street vendors, as traders in
hides, and in rope-making factories.
The
rolls of the Jewish community at Gouda were augmented in 1935 when the
community at Woerden was merged into its ranks.
The Jewish population of Gouda also increased during the first year of the
German occupation of the Netherlands during the Second World War. In 1940, a
number of the many foreign Jewish refugees who had taken up residence in the
Netherlands arrived in Gouda following the mass expulsion by the Germans of
foreign Jews from cities and towns in the coastal regions of the Netherlands.
A
separate school for Jewish children was established at Gouda following the
Germans' wartime barring of Jewish pupils from the town's public schools. The
school remained open until April of 1943 and the completion of the deportation
of Jews from Gouda.
Deportations
of Jews from Gouda commenced late in August of 1942. Local members of the Dutch
collaborationist party NSB joined the Germans in implementing the deportations.
Almost all the Jews living in Gouda, including the residents of the Jewish old
age home, were deported and later murdered. The interior of the synagogue was
vandalized and destroyed during the war; the synagogue's Torah scrolls were
hidden and later recovered, as were a number of its ceremonial objects.
Jewish
life in Gouda did not resume following the end of the war. The farm school at
Catharinahoeve was sold a few years after the war, as were the synagogue and
Jewish home for the aged. The Jewish community at Gouda was formally abolished
in 1964 and subsequently was administratively merged into the Jewish community
at Rotterdam.
In
1976, rising groundwater levels in the region led to the clearing of Gouda's
Jewish cemeteries and the removal of the remains of the dead to the Jewish
cemetery at Wageningen. The entrance gate of the
former cemetery at the Boelekade and a portion of its walls have been included
in memorial monument that stands at the Raoul Wallenbergplantsoen. A plaque
identifies the monument as dedicated to the memory of the Jews of Gouda
murdered during the war.
A
plaque mounted on the façade of the a youth work center at the corner of the
Boelekade and the Jan van der Heijdenstraat in 2001 marks the site of the
former cemetery Jewish cemetery at the Boelekade.
Also
in 2001, a Jewish religious service - the first to be held in Gouda since 1943
- was conducted in the building on the Turfmarkt that had once served the Gouda
community as its synagogue.
Oudewater
Jewish
life at nearby Oudewater fell under the jurisdiction of the Jewish community at
Woerden beginning in 1821. The Oudewater community achieved independent status
in approximately 1835 but was merged into the community at Gouda in 1877. The
synagogue at Oudewater dated to 1910 and remained in use only briefly. During
its existence, the Oudewater community maintained a women's' society for the
upkeep of the interior and accoutrements of its synagogue.
Moordrecht
A
monument erected at Moordrecht near Oudewater in 1999 is dedicated to the
memory of four Jews who had gone into hiding in the village during the war but
who eventually
were apprehended, deported, and murdered."
were apprehended, deported, and murdered."
Survivor's Life Story Before During and After the War.
Nanny
was born in 1919 in Gouda, Holland. She
lived there with her father Itzak, mother Sara and sister Simona. Her father had a big business with his 2
brothers. They sold cow and rabbit
skins. When Hitler came to power in
1933, they understood that it was a bad thing even though the war in Holland
started in 1940. Holland was under his
control 10 days after they conquered it. They passed anti-Jewish laws. Each time a new law was passed. Jews couldn't use their bicycles or even go
to school or work. She had already started working but she couldn't work after that. She got a letter firing her from the
city. The Germans took all the money and
businesses away from the Jews. My family
talked about what to do they didn't want to follow Germany orders
telling them to gather in places to be sent to work in the East. They understood that the
situation was dangerous even though they didn't know exactly what was happening there.
They preferred to die at home rather than have the Germans take them away to
die.
"The
problem was finding a place to hide that was not dangerous because no one could
know they were there. They took Jews'
houses so my parents went to live at my father's brother house. My sister and I
went to live at my father's sister's house for a short time. One day we went to
the synagogue and when we wanted to leave the German police came in and took
the Hopper family who never came back.
Then we understood that we should leave. My father had a lot of sisters
and brothers in Gouda, but they were from well known families so hiding with them wasn't a
good solution . My father had a friend that wasn't living in
Gouda. He told my father that my sister and I could come to stay there because
he knew a place where we could hide. He was a Protestant Minister who came from
a very small town. I didn't want to
go there but my sister wanted to because she knew my father's friend's son
because they were in the same class. My
parents were disappointed that I didn't want to go there. I thought the town was so small that
everybody knew what was going on in each other's houses. After the war we
realized that it was true. My sister
went to the Minister and I looked for another place to hide. My friend's friend said that if I needed to I
could come stay with them. She was
Christian and didn't live in Gouda but they had a big house so I could come
there. I went there to see what kind of people they were and I saw it was a
good solution to live there. We didn't
know that the war would last so long. We
thought the war would only last a couple of months and hiding in someone's house
wouldn't be a problem."
It
was believed the Germans wouldn't take her parents because they were old but
Nanny knew that wasn't the true. There was a sanatorium next to
the place where Nanny went .
A lot of Jews went to hospitals like they were sick but if they had know
that the war would go on for 3 years, they wouldn't have done that. Nanny told to
her parents to go to that sanatorium too." At first they didn't want to go there because they didn't know her but they finally did. I
hid in the manager's sister's house so I knew she was a good person. At the same time my neighbor took me to
the place that I hid in and when I went to the sanatorium, my parents had
already got there. We were told that the manager was good but was a Jew so when the
Germans would come to take him, they would also take all the Jews at the
sanatorium. The manager told my parents to go to his sister's house, where I was hiding.
So, my parents and I lived in the same place for almost a year. This place did
not suit my parents. The people we lived with had
economical difficulties. Our being there made it even more difficult. Although each of us brought
money with him it wasn't enough, so we settled for what we could get." Gradually, the Dutch underground became active.
"
They did things that were not allowed and helped people who were hiding. To get
food we needed coupons which we did not have. They stole a lot of them from municipalities
or forged them and brought them to us. I had had one that was obviously fake so
members of this group made sure that I got the card they had stolen.
The family who helped us were very religious Protestants who believed in helping people and not killing them. They had three children, two daughters and a son. I knew one girl who had worked in Gouda, the one worked in the hospital and the son was part of the underground. It was very dangerous for them too. But the three children were not the only children living there. Another girl, called Miri (Miriam) Balfour Burlough lived there too. She was a very nice 16 year old girl. I knew the name Balfour; it was very well known. I asked her if she was from the family of Lord Balfour but she did not know. She said she came from a family of nobility but she was not sure. It turns out that 'Burlough' was the name of her house. She was not like the others. She received Newspapers and told us all kinds of interesting news. I had a very good relationship with her. She told me she had a boyfriend whose father's family came from Gouda. He was a dentist. The family we lived with did not want her to be in touch with this guy but she refused and she told us everything she did. We told her she'd better stop because if they caught her it would not be good. She would not agree. After the war she married him and I was at their wedding in a church."
The family who helped us were very religious Protestants who believed in helping people and not killing them. They had three children, two daughters and a son. I knew one girl who had worked in Gouda, the one worked in the hospital and the son was part of the underground. It was very dangerous for them too. But the three children were not the only children living there. Another girl, called Miri (Miriam) Balfour Burlough lived there too. She was a very nice 16 year old girl. I knew the name Balfour; it was very well known. I asked her if she was from the family of Lord Balfour but she did not know. She said she came from a family of nobility but she was not sure. It turns out that 'Burlough' was the name of her house. She was not like the others. She received Newspapers and told us all kinds of interesting news. I had a very good relationship with her. She told me she had a boyfriend whose father's family came from Gouda. He was a dentist. The family we lived with did not want her to be in touch with this guy but she refused and she told us everything she did. We told her she'd better stop because if they caught her it would not be good. She would not agree. After the war she married him and I was at their wedding in a church."
"When
we were in this house we found out something had happened where my sister was
hiding and that the Germans had caught my sister and sent her to Camp Sterbork in
Holland and then transferred her to Sobibor. She did not come back."
"One
day when the family we were living with was not home, we suddenly heard a
"boom." My mom had fallen off the ladder and broken her nose. Miri
and I did not know what to do because we could not go outside and my mother had
to be treated. A few minutes later the family came home with a doctor. The
father of the family counted on the doctor not to tell that we were Jews. The
doctor examined my mother and said she had to go to the hospital which was very
dangerous. So, the mother of the family, who was very good at dealing with such
situations, told her to go to the hospital and use her name. My mother spent a
long time in the hospital and as time passed they started asking all kinds of
questions. My father was deaf and sometimes he would make noise when visitors
came to the house. For example - if he had to go to the toilet he opened and
closed the door loudly not understanding that it was very dangerous because we
could be caught. As a result, when my mother recovered, we had move to another place. The
underground sent my parents to Barneveld in Southern Holland and I stayed with
the family. In Barneveld Jews were liberated before we were. My parents tried to get work but they could not because
of their age. I moved from place to place seven times in two years. I went to a
very nice and very small family then spent four weeks in Zwist where I had a very
good relationship with the family. I met their two children but did not have
such a good relationship with them. Their third child was born after the war.
One child, Hans, was 7 years old and he used to play outside. One member of the
family worked in all kinds of forbidden things, so I had to leave because it
was too dangerous to stay there. Later I stayed with someone in Noordwijk, near
the North Sea for a month or two. Then a doctor took me to Zoeterwoude, a city divided
into Catholics and Protestants. The doctor who took me in was a Catholic therefore I went to the Catholic region. Since all my friends had been Protestant I did not know how to be a Catholic and I
was afraid of being discovered. He told me to say I was Protestant. I came to
that region because the food was better and I had got sick from the lack of
food where I had previously stayed. I lived with the next family until the end of the
war. An older man and his adult children- three sons and one daughter. The
boys worked in the cow pasture. I got well there but I was far away."
When
Holland was liberated, her parents could not return to Gouda because there
wasn't transportation. Nanny, however, could get back to Gouda from where she was. Nanny came home but the
house was full of furniture that did not belong to her family. So she went to
the municipality and asked what to do and whether she could live there. They
said they would come to take the things, but in the meantime Nanny could go home.
The municipality organized a warehouse with all the furniture and each one who
returned could take his furniture. She also looked there and found something
which had belonged to her family. The house was so dirty that they couldn't see the
carpet. They cleaned and organized and waited for Nanny's parents to come home
so they could start their lives again.
After
the war Nanny lived in Gouda until 1950 when she came to Israel as a tourist
for two months. Her father knew people he helped escape from Germany to
Holland who helped her when she came here. She lived with them until she
found her own place. Then Nanny got married and had one son, a microbiologist who
lives in Rechovot. He is married and has three children, two sons, one
finished the army, one serving in the army and one 17 year old daughter in 11th
grade. They usually come to visit her on Saturdays and she visits them every
month or two.