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Benjamin Kroon, Rebekka Kroon-Ter Berg and Hanna Sara
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Hannie Kroon photographed mid-1942.
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Benjamin Kroon was besides being sexton of the Synagogue, a religious educator and the Secretary of the Israelite Community, a kosher chicken slaughterer in Meppel. He also arranged funerals at the Jewish Cemetery on Steenwijkerstraatweg, and notified Meppel council of births and deaths in the Jewish community.
On the 15th of September 1939 he appeared for example at the Registrar to notify that a member of the Israelite Community had died:
On the fourteen of September this year, at approximately one o’clock in the afternoon, died at 49 Emmastraat in Meppel: van Esso, Annigje, widow of van Esso, Mozes, eighty-four years old, unemployed, residing in Meppel, born at Ruinerwold, daughter of van Esso, Hartog and Joles, Jetje, both deceased.
A striking closing sentence shows that Kroon took his job very seriously: ‘the notifier declared he was not permitted to write on a Jewish holiday.’
On the 2nd of October 1942, Kroon did his last job. He notified grave digger Holterman, ‘to prepare a child’s grave for a boy of three weeks, son of Mr. S. v. d. Rhoer, to be buried at the ‘children’s row. The funeral will take place on Sunday the 4th of October, at one o’clock.’ This was the last child to be buried at the Jewish Cemetery in Meppel. His father had already been transported to Westerbork and only his mother was permitted to attend the funeral.
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Letter from Benjamin Kroon to gravedigger Holterman regarding the grave of Joël van de Rhoer.
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Kroon also had the task of making sure that his fellow community members would only consume kosher food. Therefore, he frequently visited the shop of the Schipper family, at Wilhelminastraat, where many Jews would buy their fruit and vegetables.
When the Hero-factory in Breda launched their products on the market, Perl, Cassis (a blackberry drink) and other goods approved by a rabbi were made available in Meppel by the Schipper family, most likely at Kroon’s intercession.
Benjamin was born in Delfzijl as one of eleven children of Jozeph Kroon and Sara van der Laan. In 1916 he married at Zuidbroek (Groningen) Rebekka ter Berg, one of the daughters of Jozef ter Berg and Hanna Wijnberg, residing in Zuidbroek.
Benjamin and Rebekka had two children: Joseph and Hanna. The first child was born in 1918, at Veendam, where Benjamin and Rebekka were living at the time and the second child was born in 1923, in Meppel.
Joseph married Rosaline van Dien, born in 1918 in Alpen aan den Rijn. The couple went to live in Appingedam on Dijkstraat, where their son Izaak David was born on November 1941.In August 1942, Joseph, together with other Jews from Groningen was apprehended and put on transport to Auschwitz, and on the 18th of August he was gassed.
Rosaline remained behind with their sick son Izaak, who was later admitted to the Roman Catholic Hospital on the Hereweg in Groningen. Rosaline decided to leave Groningen and go to her in-laws in Meppel; on the 3rd of October she visited her parents at 10 Touwstraat.
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In September 1942 all their possessions were listed by the Meppel police and confiscated by the German army.
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How she came to Meppel is not clear; did she get a lift from someone? The fact is that at the beginning of October she spent a few days with her mother- and sister-in-law Hanna in Meppel. Her father-in-law had also been sent to work at the labour camp. At last some she was with people she could talk to, to whom she could show her tears. On the 2nd of October things did not seem so bad. Her father-in-law came home on leave from Orvelte. For a moment it was like old times. They even hoped they could celebrate the Day of Atonement together.
However, in the night of Friday to Saturday the whole family, father, mother and daughter Kroon were put on transport. But what happened to Rosaline? Her son Izaak was in hospital, she had no clothes with her! The Meppel police did not know what to do with her. Other non-Meppel Jews where apprehended without mercy and transported to Westerbork; could they do the same to her? After long discussions and a lot of begging and crying, an exemption was made for her, with the following arguments:
Aware of the fact that the woman was not able to look after her son of ten months, who is in the Roman Catholic Hospital in Helpman (Groningen) and that she has not had the opportunity to bring the permitted goods along with her from her house in Appingedam.
Aware of the fact that the Commander of the Security Police & SD in Assen has declared that the woman has permission to collect her baby from the earlier mentioned Hospital in Helpman and her possessions from her house in Appingedam.
Policeman Veldhuis of the regional police in Meppel was ordered to escort Rosaline to the police station in Groningen. There they had to take care that she could collect her baby and her clothes from her house at Appingedam.
However, the police were also instructed to take care that the woman, child and luggage were to be transported to Westerbork. That day, the fanatical chief of Police in Groningen, a member of the NSB (the Dutch National Socialist Movement), Mr. Ph. Blank, gathered his men and informed them that he had a really nice job for them that they would enjoy doing without any doubt: reuniting Jewish families.
Mr. Blank undoubtedly knew better, but with this kind of demagogy he was able to convince most policemen to do their jobs properly and make sure Rosaline and Izaak ended up in Westerbork. It is most likely that Rosaline and her in-laws were reunited in Westerbork.
What happened after that? Rebecca, Benjamin and Hanna died on the 5th of November in Auschwitz, Rosaline died with her child Izaak in her arms on the 19th of February in the same gas chambers.
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Death certificate issued by Benjamin Kroon, after the death of Clara Levie-Stern.
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