Manfred Ralf Litten was married to Jansje Serlui. The couple had a child who survived the war.
Manfred Ralf Litten left his birthplace Posen with his parents. They settled in Berlin, where Manfred Ralf Litten was a teacher at a children's home. He met his future wife Jansje Serlui there. After they married, she was assigned to run the Hakhsharah House in Steckelsdorff. Afterwards they moved to Danzig, where Manfred Ralf Litten taught at a yeshivah. Because of the deteriorating situation, they moved to the Netherlands.
In January 1939 the couple was placed in charge of the Jewish youth farm established for Palestine Pioneers at the Catharinahoeve in Gouda in 1937, an estate on over two hectares of land. They ran the Jewish youth farm until it was closed on 23 April 1943. Manfred Ralf Litten taught at the Jewish youth farm and organized shul services. His wife was known as Shoshanah. She was an educationalist and played the piano. She was in the Resistance and worked with Joachim Simon. They arranged forged identity papers together for the Catharinahoeve residents to go into hiding. The three family members went into hiding, each at a different address. The parents were caught while in hiding and deported, the wife during an inspection at the station in Utrecht.
In 1947 the surviving Palestine Pioneers planted the Westerweel Forest on one the slopes of Mount Ephraim in the Galilee in what was Palestine at the time. There is also monument at the site featuring the names of the Palestine Pioneers were killed during the war, including Shoshanah Litten.
Biography