Esther

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I missed this one so I'm really glad it was given golden cherries - what a wonderful tribute to her, that her words still make people think. Thank you for sharing this Yutka, and for bringing her back to life here. Those words needed now just as much as then

A beautiful story Scharlie, with great compassion and admiration for such a very courageous girl, is this based on an actual poem of hers? And the portrait? Esther is also the name of an heroine in the Bible whose story always makes me think of "The strength of a woman is in her beauty, the beauty of a man is in his strength". Words to be probably frowned on these days.

She is beautiful and pure of heart, the meaning of the name Esther is given as a Persian word for "Star", or Venus.

Very well deserving of the golden Cherries! Tom

you cry out for those that cannot cry out. alleluia. Still, history cruely exposes the same lies. The same mass murders. 

This poem “Esther” deserves many cherries, like Anne Frank Esther van Vriesland wrote a diary which she threw over the fence of the neighbour the day she was rounded up to be taken to Auschwitz. She attended the so called Jewish Lyceum in Rotterdam.

 In May 1940, the Netherlands was occupied. The occupier quickly took measures against Jews. For example, all civil servants and teachers had to sign a declaration that they, their parents or grandparents were not Jewish. Three teachers at the Erasmiaans Lyceum, where Esther was a pupil, were unable to sign this ‘Aryan declaration’. They were dismissed in November 1940. During the summer holidays of 1941, rector Pattist, the rector of the Erasmiaans Gymnasium, received a letter from the municipality of Rotterdam. The letter stated that he had to make a list of all students at Erasmiaans, for the purpose of “separating Jewish and non-Jewish children.”

The student administration at Erasmiaans did not record whether or not someone was Jewish. However, the Population Register did. This made it relatively easy for the occupier to identify Dutch Jews. They were assisted in this by Dutch civil servants.

The municipal authorities received a reassuring letter from the Department of Education, Science and Cultural Protection. This letter stated:

“I would like to emphasize that the intention is to enable Jewish children to continue the education they currently receive, albeit in separate educational institutions”

In other words: it seemed as if it was only about segregation: separating Jews from non-Jews. Deportation and extermination were not discussed.

When the Jewish Lyceum was founded on October 23, 1941, the school had 145 students. In February 1942, the number of students had increased to 150.

At the Jewish Lyceum, there were two girls who kept a diary: Carry Ulreich and Esther van Vriesland, (my 4th cousin once removed). Both diaries have been published. From these diaries we know that school life initially continued as normal, with homework, presentations and rehearsals. There were crushes and teasing, cheat sheets were made and there was a lot of laughter at jokes. During the break, the students would sit and talk, read, draw or play chess. Or they would walk to the emergency shops on the Goudsesingel to buy something nice. Sometimes there was a birthday party, a lecture or a musical performance.

In the course of 1942, the atmosphere became grimmer. “First, these Jewish teenagers had to leave their familiar school environment. Then they were no longer allowed to go to the cinema, to the beach, to swimming pools, parks, libraries. And the net closed more and more. In January 1942, they had a J stamped on their identity cards. From 3 May, they had to wear the yellow Star of David. From mid-June, they were no longer allowed to ‘canoe, row, swim and fish’, as Esther wrote in her diary. And a month later, the deportations began.”

In October 1942, there were only 39 students left at the Jewish Lyceum due to deportations and going into hiding. At the end of March 1943, there were only 12 students left. In May 1943, the Jewish Lyceum was closed. Esther born in Gorinchem, 12 December 1926, died in  Auschwitz, 5 October 1942

Carry Ulreich survived and passed away on January 31, 2019. She was the author of the diary’s Nachts droom ik van vrede (‘At night, I dream of peace’). In this diary, she describes how she experienced going into hiding as an Orthodox Jewish teenager during the war years in Rotterdam. Carry Ulreich survived the war and built a new life in Israel under the name of Carmela Mass. The publication of her diary, received international attention.

 She had three children, 20 grandchildren and more than 60 great-grandchildren. She took her wartime diary, spread over several yellowing notebooks, to Israel but re-read it only two years ago, deciding to publish. In an interview with the Dutch newspaper Trouw, she described her story as “like Anne Frank’s, but with a happy end.”

Carry passed away at the age of 92, surrounded by her family.

Thanks so much for this addition Mouette - all three were brave and talented, and they all deserved a happy ending. the least we can do is to keep all their names in the public knowledge, so thank you again for this

All we are left with in the end is memories. I imagine that is amplified when related to someone in these circumstances. These victims, people, stories, recollections stand the test of time and stand as an important reminder of where dispassionate ideology can take us - to the darkest places imaginable.