Abstract from the article 'David Bierman. Een van God getekende' by L. Huizing:
'David Bierman. Mentally disabled and a hunchback. Every day he walked about the village playing his little organ for people to hear his music. He was well-known in Dalen and surrounding villages. There must still be people who knew him. His father Jonas Bierman peddled animal skins, scrap metal and textiles at farms every day with his dog cart. On Saturday, the Shabbat, he rested. The Jewish family Bierman observed Orthodox traditions. That day was one of absolute rest. At home they often called on the neighbours for tasks that needed to be done. "Could you please turn out the lights for us?" they might ask on Friday evening. When it got cold, mother Eva Bierman-Nijveen would ask "Could you come throw something on the stove?" if she needed peat or wood to keep the fire burning.
David lived with his parents and his brothers Simon and Izak in a room in the home of Steven Kramer. Jonas and Eva were desperately poor. Business did not bring in enough for them to make ends meet. The change that David collected by playing his organ often helped them cover their greatest needs. Many people in Dalen would put a few pennies in his hand as they passed him playing his organ. Others avoided him, believing that David's hump was a sign that God had branded him, and that they needed to watch out. David was often taunted and teased. Several times a year, local youths told him it was his birthday and tied a cake on his arm. Others pestered him by inserting a twig under his little organ to upset its balance. The organ would produce no sound at all or would play out of tune. David would try to fix the problem with a hammer and nails. As a result, his instrument had iron strips in the strangest places. The youths had no idea of the harm they were doing to David.
Every Sabbath the Bierman family went to the shul. Dalen had no synagogue, but Coevorden was nearby, where Rabbi David Krammer had been a central figure as long as anybody could remember.
Following the Nazi invasion on 10 May 1940 little changed at first. The Jews in Dalen were part of the community, as they were in other vilWilly in Drente. All villagers, including the NSB supporters, interacted with him as usual, even after they were forced to wear the despised star in May 1942. Mayor J.A. ten Holte, Esq., who had been mayor of Dalen since 1913, refused to place signs reading "No Jews allowed" in his town. Hardly any Jews lived in his community: barely five Jewish families.
In the night of 2 to 3 October 1942, the Jews of Dalen were taken away. Among them were David and his mother Eva (his father had died by then), his brothers Simon and Izak, Izak's wife Frouwke Bierman-Bollegraaf and their three children Jonas, Henderina and Eva. They were held at the transit camp Westerbork. A few days later they were deported to the death camps in Germany and Poland. None of them ever returned to Dalen. As victims of racial hatred, they were deliberately killed.'
L. Huizing, 'David Bierman. Een van God getekende', in: Nieuwsblad van het Noorden, 2 juni 2001
This person is commemorated on a memorial in Dalen. More information on this memorial can be found (in Dutch) on the website of the Nationaal Comité 4 en 5 mei.
Biography