Robert Jozef Dürheim arrived in Rotterdam as a German refugee on 15 December 1938. He was taken in at 1 Quarantainestraat, an assembly point for Palestine Pioneers. He left there on 17 April 1939 and moved to the Vondelhof, a school building on the Frederikstraat, adjacent to the Vondelpark in Amsterdam. The Vondelhof was also an assembly point for Palestine Pioneers. In September 1939 the Vondelhof was requisitioned to accommodate Dutch soldiers, and Robert Jozef Dürheim was transferred to the youth aliyah home at the Hof van Moerkerken in Mijnsheerenland. After this home was closed on 16 October 1940, he and several other wards moved to the youth aliyah home Loosdrecht, the Paviljoen Loosdrechtse Rade. He worked for a cattle farmer there, where he learned to milk cows.
Together with seven other Palestine Pioneers (Siegbert Leo Adler, Bernard Aschheim, Juda Pinkhof, Lilli Kellner, Fabian Schön, Jossel Waldmann and Esra Jurovics), Robert Jozef Dürheim was caught at the Belgian border trying to escape to Switzerland.
F. van der Straaten, Om nooit te vergeten. Herinneringen en belevenissen aan/van Palestina-Pioniers gedurende de oorlogsjaren 1939-1945 (Mijnsheerenland s.a.) 64, 82
This person is commemorated on a memorial in Loosdrecht. More information on this memorial can be found (in Dutch) on the website of the Nationaal Comité 4 en 5 mei.
More information about this person can be found on www.dokin.nl