us-005578-irn514190
type: RecordSet
archival history: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
biographical history: Elly Moses was born Elly Rachel van Leeuwen on August 7, 1931 in the Hague, Netherlands, to Judith Degroot and Isaac van Leeuwen. Her family had lived in the Hague for generations, and her father owned a bicycle and small appliance shop. Elly contracted polio in 1935 and had to remain at home for most of the time following her illness though she probably attended public school briefly. Her younger sister Rachel (Chellie) was born in 1936. In May 1940, the Germans invaded the Netherlands, and the following year, Isaac volunteered to go to Westerbork (established in October 1939). He joined one of the first transports to the camp after believing a promise that in return his family would remain unmolested. He is believed to have been deported to Monowitz (Auschwitz III, established in October 1942) and perished there. Judith initially wanted to remain with her husband, but acquaintances in the underground convinced her to try to save her daughters. In 1942 Judith placed Elly and Chellie in hiding and spent the rest of the war working as a weapons courier for the Dutch resistance using false papers. Chellie, using the false name Loesje Frederiks, was placed with a Catholic family in a small town in the provenance of Limburg, and Elly was taken to live with a lawyer. He kept her locked in a closet for three weeks, and then she was taken to a farm run by a Dutch woman whose son had Down’s syndrome. This hiding place did not work out either, so Elly was next taken to Middleburg to a family whose name was ironically also van Leeuwen. Another Jewish girl who was also hiding there was rounded up during a raid on the home, so Elly was moved to a new hiding place. She thought her protector Mr. van Leeuwen was shot and killed but later learned that he died on March 9, 1944 from pneumonia after landing in an ice-cold ditch during a car accident caused by a German officer. Johannes and Katarina Maria den Hollander welcomed Elly into their home even though they had two young boys o…
date: circa 1931-2003
has or had holder: us-005578
has or had identifier: 1
has or had some members with language: nld
has or had subject: 2019
has or had subject: 701
has record set type: Item
identifier: irn514190
record resource extent: folder 1
record resource structure: The Elly Moses photographs are arranged as a single series.
results or resulted from: 1
scope and content: The Elly Moses photographs consist of pre-war, wartime, and post-war original and reproduction photographs of Elly van Leeuwen Moses, her sister Rachel (Chellie), and her parents, Isaac and Judith, as well as of one of the families who hid her during the Holocaust.
title: Elly Moses photographs