Abraham Beem, the son of Rosette and Hartog Beem, was born on June 13, 1934. Abraham’s father was a high school teacher in the small city of Leeuwarden, in northern Holland. The Jews of the Netherlands were well integrated into the general population, and they were active in all aspects of the country’s social, cultural and economic life.
Abraham, nicknamed Bram, was a 5-year-old schoolboy when the Germans invaded the Netherlands in May 1940. They immediately took steps to separate the Jews from the rest of the population. Beginning in October 1940, they forced Jewish businesses to close and banned Jews from most professions. Even the rich became poor, and most of the working class could barely survive. At first, the Dutch population resisted the anti-Jewish measures enacted by the Germans. The Germans reacted brutally and were able to break up most organized resistance.
By July 1941, many Jews were forced into restricted ghetto areas. After May 1942, all Jews were required to wear yellow stars that identified them as Jews. In mid-July 1942, the Germans began rounding up Holland’s Jewish citizens. They were first taken to transit camps and then to death camps in Poland, where they were murdered.
Abraham’s parents decided that the family would go into hiding. They felt that the children would be safer posing as non-Jews in a rural village. Abraham and his older sister, Eva, were sent to the village of Ermelo. They were fortunate to find a Christian family willing to risk death to save them. Abraham was given a new name and identity. He was known as Jan de Witt, and he attended school along with the other village children.
The Nazis, realizing that many Jewish children had been sent into hiding, intensified their search. They found collaborators willing to turn them in for payment. Abraham was denounced as a Jew in February 1944. Abraham and Eva were arrested, sent to Westerbork Transit Camp, and then deported to Auschwitz Death Camp in Poland. Both were murdered upon arrival at Auschwitz.
Abraham was 9 years old.
Abraham was one of 1.5 million Jewish children murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators during the Holocaust.
A personal history from the Archives of the SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTER 1991-788 [001]
