us-005578-irn521722-irn521930
type: RecordSet
archival history: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
biographical history: Elisabeth Blind was born in Amsterdam, Netherlands, in 1932, to Cornelius Blind and Schoontje Visser. Schoontje was born on December 2, 1909, to Benjamin Visser, born on August 28, 1875, in Amsterdam, and Henriette Brilleslyper, born on June 21, 1880, in Friedland. Schoontje had six siblings: Levi, born on June 29, 1907, Jacob, born on November 16, 1913, Sara, Betsy, Max, and Josef, who was born on December 2, 1909 and died before the war. Cornelius and Schoontje divorced in the late 1930s. Germany occupied the Netherlands on May 10, 1940. Schoontje obtained false identity papers for herself and Elisabeth and they went into hiding. With the help of the Dutch underground, in particular Willem Schalbroeck, they were moved from place to place. They kept a small suitcase that was always packed to take to the cellar during bombing raids. At one point, Elisabeth and Schoontje hid with the Mooi family. They also lived on Burmenstraat which had bunkers at the end of the street where the Germans held Jews until trucks came to take them away. One day, Elisabeth was sent to get milk. As she walked to the store, a Dutch neighbor suspected of being a German sympathizer and who often listened to German music, followed her and asked the owner why he let in a Jew. The owner knew Elisabeth was Jewish, but told the woman that she was not. The woman dragged Elisabeth out by the hair. Elisabeth often searched through rubbish to fill a wagon with potato peels, and then would walk for hours in her wooden shoes to trade the peels to farmers for food and milk. Schoontje’s sister, Betsy Swaab, her husband Sam, and children, Jacob and Henriette, lived nearby. Elisabeth would bike to her house to get some sugar. In spring 1943, she saw a crowd watching Germans collect Jews for deportation. Elisabeth snuck near and watched as her Aunt Betsy and her thirteen year old cousin, Henriette, were arrested. Henriette carried a pillowcase with her belongings over her shoulder. She hurried home to tell …
has or had holder: us-005578
has or had identifier: 1
has or had subject: 843
has or had subject: 1141
has or had subject: 701
has or had subject: 1138
has or had subject: 2019
has record set type: Item
identifier: irn521930
is or was included in: us-005578-irn521722
record resource extent: folder 1
record resource structure: The collection is arranged as a single series.
results or resulted from: 1
scope and content: The papers consist of six photographs of members of the Visser family, one photograph of a group of men and women at the Joodsche Schouwburg the day before their deportation, and letters and postcards sent from Visser family members at Vught and Westerbork concentration camps to Schoontje Visser [mother of Elisabeth Munichman].
title: Elisabeth and Maurits Munichman papers