Van Geuns family papers

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum 

Van Geuns family papers 

folders 2 

The papers document the Holocaust-era experiences of the van Geun family, originally of Rotterdam, Netherlands. Included are passports, identification cards, photographs, and a baby album. The baby album documents Marianne van Geuns' childhood and was compiled by her mother, Rozia Vreede van Geuns. The other photographs in the collection depict Marianne’s parents Rozia and Simon van Guens at the time of their wedding, Marianne’s birth, and various extended family members, most of whom perished in the Holocaust. 

Marianne van Geuns was born June 8, 1941, in Rotterdam, Netherlands, to Simon van Geuns and Rozia Vreede van Geuns. In 1943, Marianne’s parents entrusted her to a window washer who then placed her with the Haanapel family. Franciska Margaret and Willem Haanapel had five other children, the youngest of whom was only four months older than Marianne. They cared for her through the end of the war, and Marianne came to know them as her parents. Simon and Rozia were both deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau where they perished. Marianne immigrated to Israel in 1980.