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Mozes Abraham Roos, Anna Roos-van Leer, Hein en Leman
Anna van Leer, born at Drachten on 1 March 1886, married Mozes Abraham Roos, born at Nieuwleusen on 28 November 1884. They had nine children, of whom Mozes and Jacob came to live in Meppel. Jacob died before WWII on 29 January 1939 at the age of 57, when traveling to Warnsveld.
Mozes was a butcher, like his brother-in-law. He worked at the export slaughterhouse of Van der Sluis and even lived next door at 54 Ezingerweg. The couple had three sons. Hein Mozes, born on 11 April 1924, called Broertje ‘little brother’ by the family, was the youngest. He worked as a shop assistant in the grocery of Mr. Spijkerman on Gasgracht opposite Kuperusvonder.
His older brothers were Abraham (28 March 1917) and Leman (5 September 1920). Abraham worked like his father with Van der Sluis. He often drove one of the firm’s lorries to deliver various meat products. He sometimes took the family with him: ‘[…] Last Wednesday I went with my mother to the funfair in Zwolle. We left Meppel at a quarter past ten. Bram dropped us in Zwolle and drove on to Apeldoorn to deliver the meat.’
Leman had a totally different profession, he was a coppersmith. After finishing technical school he was employed by the firm of Rijkeboer, a plumber in Kruisstraat.
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Leman Roos lived on Ezingerweg.
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Mr. Rijkeboer remembered:
Leo Roos worked for my father as a plumber. I often went with him to do jobs in or outside Meppel. I still remember that we kept him employed, although this was no longer allowed. Jews were no longer allowed to work for non-Jewish firms. The last months that he worked for us he had the Star of David pinned on his overalls. When he worked outside Meppel, he took it off. Nobody knew him there.
In his spare time Leman was an enthusiastic football player and a member of MSC. On 22 October 1941 there came an end to this. As a Jew he was no longer allowed to play for this club. There is still a receipt, dated 7 June 1941 of the treasurer of MSC which says that Leman had paid his contribution (60 cents) for 10 May till 7 June 1941. This must have been one of his last payments to his beloved club.
He was also a member of Gemiloeth Chasadiem, a Jewish burial society. He could not have suspected that his own funeral would be under totally different circumstances.
Abraham married (at Oss on 4 July 1941) Mietje Blok, (born in Groningen on 3 May 1917). They already went steady in 1938, as is shown in a letter by Hein Roos: ‘[…] Saturday afternoon Bram left for Oss and will be back on Monday evening.’
Bram and Mietje went to live at 54 Papaverstraat. They were very proud of their relatively new house. Their cousin Taapke came especially from Drachten to help the young couple to clean their new home.
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Bram Roos and his fiancée Mimi Blok on a tandem in front of the export slaughterhouse of Van der Sluis where both Mozes and Bram worked.
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That the Germans kept a close eye on what happened to the Dutch Jews appears from a letter from the Inspectorate of the Registry office to Meppel local council:
‘In connection with the notification mentioned above [Regulation 6/1941, TR] no mutation has been received concerning the marital status of the spouse: Blok, Mietje.’
Apparently The Hague had not been informed about the marriage of Abraham Roos and was not amused. As usual the Meppel administrators responded quickly, for one day later a duplicate of the change in marital status was sent to the Inspectorate. This was not all, for on 1 October 1942 there was another letter from the Inspectorate:
‘According to a notification by the mayor of Oss, Mietje Blok was deleted from their register, but I have not been notified that she was entered into your register.’
Mimi lived, before she came to Meppel at 9 Lindenweg in Oss. That mutation had not been passed on either, apparently. The next day the town clerk Mr. De Carpentier corrected this ‘mistake’.
From mid July 1942 the Roos family home got emptier. First Mozes Roos was transported to the work camp at Orvelte on 20 July. In August the other men had to leave. Hein Mozes, Leman and Abraham were first taken to the work camp at Linde and then to Westerbork. Anna and newly wed Mietje stayed behind. A moving letter that Anna Roos wrote tells us about this:
First Moos gone, nearly four weeks ago now, and the boys left 2 weeks ago. M. is at Orvelte and Hein, L and B. first went to Linde in the district of Zuidwolde, just for one day and they had to get up at 2 o’clock and at 3 o’clock they had to walk to Hoogeveen carrying their luggage. B. had very sore feet. They went by train to Hooghalen and from there they had to walk 9 kilometers to Westerbork […] They stayed there till Sunday night. Broer (Hein) had to go on transport to Germany first. Leo wanted to go with him and he had to go too. I was so pleased about this and so was M.. Perhaps they are still together. Bram is still at Westerbork, but he will probably have to leave too. Mimi will then go with him, she says, so I will be here all alone .Maybe we will have to go too. I usually stay with Mimi. She prefers that, and I do not like being alone, it’s all very hard.
[…]you can imagine what a terrible situation we are in, but we have to be brave and we hope and trust that with God’s help everything will be all right again one day. That is all we can do for all of them. Aron and Eli van Gelder have also gone to Germany. Leo is still at Westerbork. He is married now. And Sallie van der Sluis is also gone. Nearly everybody has gone, it is all so dreadful. What kind of world do we live in? Bram does not earn a penny. M. earns about 6 guilders a week. So brave of him, we can just get by on it. We will be able to manage if he can stay there. We will send a parcel. It is not allowed but we will do this illegally. Food is pretty bad over there.
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Hein Roos posing for the school photographer in front of Vledder School (1933).
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Leman and Hein have never seen their family back. Already on 24 August they were deported from Westerbork to Auschwitz (as ‘volunteers’), as we can read in their mother’s letter. Leman died on 18 September (possibly by pneumonia) and Hein on 30 September. Abraham was allowed to stay in Westerbork, probably because he was married. On 3 October he must have given his father, mother and Mimi a hearty welcome. The fact that the two boys had been carried off to the East undoubtedly cast a shadow over their reunion. The next to depart were Anna and Mozes. They seem to have had plans to go into hiding, but they were too late. The Police had already taken them from their home. They went to Auschwitz on 30 October and died there on 2 November (as usual exactly three days later).
Mimi and Bram stayed in Westerbork for nearly six months. On 1 April 1943 they sent a postcard to relatives at Drachten. This card has been kept. In spite of everything they sound optimistic:
At last I will write you a card to inform you that we are all right. Mimi has just gone to work and I have finished my job for today till tomorrow morning 7 o’clock. I hope you are all well. Will you write back? We are allowed to receive parcels. Is uncle Moos able to earn a living? How are Leo’s children? Mimi did not feel well a couple of days ago but fortunately she is o.k. now. Last Sunday, the 28th was my birthday. Leo [Leman] van Gelder and Martha [(his wife Martha van Zuiden, TR] are still here, fortunately.
On 13 April Bram and Mimi wrote to their uncle and aunt again. In this letter Bram gives us a picture of every day life in camp Westerbork:
It is a large camp here with at least 100 barracks, big ones and small ones. The big ones house more than 400 people, all bunk beds, three on top of each other and right next to each other. Each barrack is split up in two halves, one side for the men, the other for the women. As long as I have been here I have slept next to Leo van Gelder, but last week Mimi and I had to move to a smaller barrack. We are now in a big one again. The food is not very good here. Leo and I are lucky because we work in the kitchen and often prepare a snack for ourselves. The main problem is the shortage of butter. Well, you will understand that we lack a lot. No meat etc., too much to mention. We usually have mashed potatoes and cabbage (red, white or sauerkraut). Sometimes groats or soup and often potatoes boiled in their skins. But enough about this.
You know about my parents; they went on at the end of October. Leo and Broertje (little
brother) went right at the start in August. Awful isn’t it? We try not to think about it but we have our bad moments as you can imagine. There are at least 10.000 people here at the moment. Three times a week a large and many small transports come in from the provinces. Every Tuesday people leave, 1200 this morning, 2000 last week, many old and sick people among them. It is so sad to see this and we have seen this from August onward. We are lucky that we are still here and we hope to remain here for a while.
I wish the times would change.
Mimi adds a few words:
Life is very hard here, but we adapt ourselves to the circumstances. We are very glad that we can stay here for the time being, we really hope so. What it is like here, I really cannot describe, just miserable. But we are young and we have our work, so we manage.
Finally both young people gave their relatives a warning:
Write us back, please, but when you do this be careful in what you say, because some letters are opened. Do not enclose letters in parcels, please.
The relatives at Drachten took care of their nephew and niece in the camp as best they could. They sent parcels with food as often as they could, like e.g. at the end of April 1943. In reply they received a letter that sheds light on another aspect in Westerbork:
Bram is in bed, because he bruised he knee when playing football last Saturday. Maybe he has to go to hospital, for it hurts very much.
Was this letter their last sign of life? At any rate Mimi and Bram were on the transportation list of 18 May 1943. Their short marriage ended in the gas chambers of Sobibor three days later on 21 May 1943.
The parents of Mietje, Samuel Blok and Hester Blok-Odewald both survived the war. Father Samuel Blok died in Oss march 24th 1952. Mother Hester Blok-Odewald (according to Geni) on december 31st 1965 in Amsterdam.
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