Eva Beem
Born May 21, 1932 in Leeuwarden, Holland
Eva, the daughter of Hartog and Rosette Beem, was an eight year-old schoolgirl when the Germans invaded Holland in May 1940. Eva's father was a high school teacher in the small city of Leeuwarden, in northern Holland. The Jews of the Netherlands were well-integrated into the general population and they were active in all aspects of the country's social, cultural and economic life.
When the Germans invaded, they immediately embarked upon steps to separate the Jews from the rest of the population. Beginning in October 1940, they liquidated Jewish businesses and banned Jews from most professions. The rich became poor and the middle class was reduced to subsistence levels. At first, the Dutch population resisted the anti-Jewish measures enacted by the Germans. But the Germans reacted brutally, and were able to break up most organized resistance.
Many Jews were forced into restricted ghetto areas in July 1941, and after May 1942, all Jews had to wear the yellow star. Beginning in mid-July 1942, the Germans began rounding up Holland's Jewish citizens. They were first taken to transit camps, and from there to death camps in Poland, where they were murdered.
Eva's parents decided that the family would go into hiding. They felt that the children would be safer posing as non-Jews in a rural village. Eva and her younger brother were sent to the village of Ermelo, and a Christian family, willing to risk death to save them, was found. Eva was given a new name and identity. She was known as Linni de Witt, and she attended school along with the other village children.
The Nazis, realizing that many Jewish children had been sent into hiding, intensified their search. They found collaborators willing to turn them in for payment. Eleven year-old Eva was denounced as a Jew in February 1944. Eva, along with her younger brother Abraham, was soon deported to the Auschwitz death camp in Poland, where both were murdered upon arrival.
Eva was one of 1.5 million Jewish children murdered by the Germans and their collaborators during the Holocaust.
Info about Eva and photo from: www.graceproducts.com/fmnc/main.htm
Comments and faves
jakerome (55 months ago | reply)
Such a sad story, repeated too many times.
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Seen next to a fellow photo of 6 Million People (1 person/photo, each person in only one photo). (?)
Bindi Irwin Fan (51 months ago | reply)
that's so sad
Helga-Anna (49 months ago | reply)
Nice.
She is so cute.
Isabel Fagg (30 months ago | reply)
Hi, I'm an admin for a group called Joods leven in Nederland/ Jewish life in the Netherlands, and we'd love to have this added to the group!
very sad.
wbeem (23 months ago | reply)
I just read about her on another photo here on Flickr. That face is definitely a Beem face. All these years later, but she still looks like family.
mkd302 and juliegbrown added this photo to their favorites.
penuin attack (5 months ago | reply)
i am doin a report about her and her was so sad