The De Leeuw and Schavrien families photographs are arranged as a single series.
De Leeuw and Schavrien families photographs
The De Leeuw and Schavrien families photographs document the survival of Meier Abraham de Leeuw’s family in hiding in Deventer, Netherlands, and the Denekamp family who hid Judith Schavrien de Leeuw during the Holocaust and cared for her and her sister after the war. De Leeuw family photographs depict David, Sophia, Judith, and Meier de Leeuw and some of the people who hid them including Wilhelmina Kleij and the Yad Vashem ceremony where she was honored. Schavrien family photographs depict Judith and Roosje Schavrien with their mother before the war and with Judith’s rescuers, Piet and Benny Denekamp, in Utrecht after the war.
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David Abraham de Leeuw (b. 1900) and Sophia de Leeuw (nee Frankenhuis, b. 1905) lived in Deventer, Netherlands, with their children Judith (b. 1928) and Meier Abraham (1930-2011). The family survived the Holocaust by hiding with various families, including the Kleij family, from September 2, 1942 until liberation. Judith and Meier’s grandparents (Abraham and Judith de Leeuw and Meier Frankenhuis) and cousins (Hendrika, Johanna, and David Frankenhuis) were all killed at Auschwitz or the Fürstengrube subcamp. Meier married Helene Gosschalk in 1956 and Judith Schavrien late in life. Judith Schavrien was born in 1935 in Amsterdam. She and her family went in hiding separately from 1941 to 1944, when they were discovered and sent to the Westerbork transit camp. Judith and her sister Roosje were sent to Bergen Belsen and Theresienstadt and survived. Their parents were sent to Sobibor and killed. Judith’s rescuers were Piet and Benny Denekamp, and Benny was arrested and sent to Ravensbrück, but she survived. The Denekamps continued to care for Judith and Roosje after the war. Judith’s first husband died in 1995 and she met Meier de Leeuw in 1999.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum