Yad Vashem Item ID 3730255
Record Group O.33 - Testimonies, Diaries and Memoirs Collection similar items similar items
File Number 5131
Testimony of Elieser Ludi Goldwein, born in Meimbressen, Germany, 1922, regarding his experiences and the activities of the Zionist and underground movements in the Netherlands and France, 1938-1944
Replies to the questionnaire, issued by the Itzhak Katzenelson Holocaust and Jewish Resistance Heritage Museum and Study Center, 1958 and 1961:
- Chaver (member) of Maccabi Hatzair, 1937-38, Hechalutz, 1939, Deventer Vereeniging (Association);
- Move from Gemany to Belgium with a Kindertransport, 1938; move to Amsterdam, the Netherlands, 1939;
- Aliya training in Amsterdam, living at Beth Chalutz; work in a furniture factory, later for a Jewish company in scrap metal collection (for the Germans); exemption stamp (protection from deportation) based on his work;
- Detention of all the male residents of Beth Chalutz, 11 June 1942; release; deportation of the other members (with the exception of Gideon Drach) to Schoorl camp, the Netherlands, and later to Mauthausen, where they all perished;
- Underground activities of Hechaluz under the leadership of Kurt Hannemann; visits by Dutch helpers and Jewish activists (Ans Roos, Joop Westerweel, Norbert Klein, "Schuschu") and Elieser Goldwein's assistance in the underground movement;
- Dissolution of Beit Chaluz due to the betrayal of an employee who worked for the Gestapo; move to other addresses;
- Call for deportation, July 1943, release by the German overseer of his company; move to another apartment following a raid and detentions;
- Beginning of a life in hiding, with the help of a forged identity card;
- Illegal crossing of the border to Belgium together with four Zionist activists (discovery and capture of two of them by Germans),
- 22 October 1943; illegal crossing of the border into France and stay in various locations; work for the German Air Force in Auffag;
- Two unsuccessful escape attempts to Spain, one organized by the Zionist underground and the other by the French Resistance, return to France each time, January and May 1944; final escape to Spain via Andorra, led by Rotspanier ( Red Spaniards), July 1943; cared for by the JDC in Andorra; continuation of the journey to Lerida, Spain;
- Emigration to Eretz Israel and arrival in Haifa, 05 November 1944.