Historical context

The Jewish presence in the Netherlands was forged by centuries of migration. In 1492, Sephardi Jews expelled from Spain found sanctuary in the Netherlands. They were later joined by Ashkenazi Jews from Germany and Eastern Europe. By the late 18th century, Dutch Jews had been granted full civil rights, and the vibrant Jewish community was flourishing, particularly in Amsterdam.

Amsterdam was fondly called Mokum, a Hebrew word for ‘safe place’. This sense of belonging and cultural contribution defined Dutch Jewry prior to the Holocaust.

Image: Market in the Jewish neighbourhood, Amsterdam, 1910. Courtesy Jewish Historical Museum, Amsterdam.

Deportations

Deportations began in July 1942. Eichmann – the mastermind of the deportations – noted with grim satisfaction, “The trains from the Netherlands were really rolling. It was quite wonderful.”

Approximately 75% of the Jewish population, about 107,000 Jews, including the Prins family, were deported to the death camps of Auschwitz and Sobibor.

The horror didn’t end with those deported; around 30,000 Jews attempted to escape or hide, relying on non-Jews to sustain them in cellars, attics and hidden rooms. Many were discovered, betrayed, or faced the impossible strain of prolonged hiding.

The number of Holocaust victims in the Netherlands, including those who died in hiding or by suicide, is staggering: 104,000 people – the highest number of Jewish victims in Western Europe.

Image: Jews boarding a deportation train to Auschwitz from Westerbork, Netherlands, 1 July 1942 to 1 October 1942. Jewish photographer Rudolf Werner Breslauer. Courtesy Yad Vashem.

Lyda & Liesje by Jan de Roos

Lyda & Liesje is the haunting story of an attempted rescue of a Dutch child during the Holocaust. The book, written by Dutch historian Jan de Roos, was launched at the Sydney Jewish Museum in November 2024.

It reveals newly unearthed details about Liesje Prins and the families that attempted to save her during the Holocaust.

Liesje’s innocent and happy childhood was documented in two diaries by her mother.

April ’41

“We are wearing ‘Stars’ now and we had told you that that is the fashion, and we did not talk about it anymore. But in the morning when we were having breakfast, we saw a rag-man cycling past. Then you said suddenly: ’Look Dad, that man has the same thing on his breast as you. Do you know what that is? Those are ‘Joodsche Pakken’

Those are suits for Jews.

Now a days you hear a lot of Jewish stories. It can hardly be otherwise, because there is so much Jewish talk going around and naturally when you play in the street you hear more than is good for a worm of four and a half years.

For instance, one of these days you woke up and you told me, ‘Last night I have dreamed that all Jewish people lost their jobs.”

The Reijer family

The Reijer couple had three daughters: Rie (left), Lyda (centre), and Cornelia (right).
It was Lyda who took charge of arranging Liesje’s hiding .

Third hiding place: Tilburg

Liesje was brought to Lyda’s elder sister Rie and Jo van der Voort in Tilburg.

After a few months Liesje went back to Haarlem, where Lyda took care of her.

Image: Jo & Rie van der Voort, 1950s

Deportation

Liesje was subsequently taken to the Hollandsche Schouwburg, the assembly point for Jews awaiting transport to the death camps. Shortly before, her parents had been arrested in Amsterdam, and together they were deported to Auschwitz, where all three were tragically gassed upon arrival.

Concentration camps

Lyda was deported to the Vught concentration camp where she stayed for eight months; she was then deported to the Ravensbrück, in Germany, where she was imprisoned until April 1945, shortly before the liberation.

Image: Vught concentration camp.

The perpetrators

Wim Henneicke (left) was the Dutch collaborator who arrested Liesje’s parents Nico and Suze. He was responsible for arresting many Jews in Amsterdam, receiving a payment of 7.50 Dutch guilders for each person he apprehended—equivalent to approximately 90 Australian dollars today.
Piet Faber (centre) and Willem Willemsen (right) , were the police officers who arrested Liesje and Lyda in Haarlem. They were brutal and relentless Jew-haters, responsible for the deaths of more than 100 Jews.

Liesje Prins – 5 years old

Liesje’s guardian angels, the Visser family, the Reijer family and the van de Voort family, did everything they could to save her. They risked their lives, but sadly did not succeed.

Five-year-old Liesje was in Auschwitz together with her parents Suze and Nico Prins.

2023

In late 2023, Curatorial Department Volunteer Anne Slade visited Amsterdam. She met the donor at the Daniel Liebeskind-designed Holocaust Names Memorial.

Image: Liesbeth Prins’ Remembrance Stone.

Lyda & Liesje

English edition published by Sydney Jewish Museum’s Community Stories, 2024.

• Author: Jan de Roos
• Editor: Suzanne Radford
• Design: Audrey Larsen, compu-vision