Bertha Tobias and Asser Wolf of Silvolde had four children. Their first daughter Amalie was born on July 17, 1887 in Silvolde. She married Joseph Isaac Mestriz. He was born in Amsterdam on May 25, 1895. They ran a clothing shop in Terborg, the neighboring village of Silvolde. Their son Bernard “Bennie” was born on August 8, 1925. Their daughter Bertha was born on July 1, 1927, but died at only three days old.
Bertha Tobias Wolf passed away in Silvolde on August 7, 1927 and is buried at the old Jewish cemetery of Terborg. Her husband Asser died on September 26, 1941 and is buried in the new cemetery.
Asser didn’t witness the first wave of arrests anymore when his son Jacob Wolf and his son-in-law Jo Mestriz were taken to Mauthausen in October 1941. Only two weeks later the women received letters from Austria telling them that their husbands died from any alleged diseases. Jo Mestriz perished on October 14 and Jacob Wolf on October 25. The women knew it was time to go into hiding. Luckily they knew some helpful neighbors who were willing to take the risk.
Amalie Mestriz and Henriette Wolf found refuge at the Saalmink farm in Silvolde, while their sons Bennie Mestriz and Alfred Wolf were taken by the Te Linderts of Sinderen. We don’t know where Henriette's other son Nico was at the time and what happened to him, but we know that he emigrated to Melbourne after the war. On December 12, 1943, a police raid took place because the daughter of Mr. Saalmink was in need of living space and therefore betrayed the hidden Jews.
Amalie, Henriette and others were arrested at the Saalmink farm immedtiately. In the early morning around 2 a.m., the Gestapo came to the Te Lindert farm. Alfred and an elder couple were hidden under the floor, while Bennie and another boy named Piet ran to a surrogate hiding place above the stables. The police and Gestapo knew that they were searching for five Jews and tore the whole place to pieces. After a while they found Alfred and the couple, but when they discovered another empty hideout in the stable they thought that Bennie and Piet escaped. They began to beat up Jan Te Lindert in order to make him reveal the hiding place of the boys. They both could hear him screaming out in pain right beside their hideout under the hay, but Jan resisted and they were not found. Jan Te Lindert was taken to a prison camp for several months where he was severely tortured. He came back home on July 26, 1944.
Amalie, Henriette and other women were taken to Auschwitz and perished on January 28, 1944. Alfred Wolf was able to escape from the prison in Arnhem, but was picked up soon after. We don’t know where and when he was deported but he perished on January 21, 1945 at an unkown place. Bennie and Piet changed their hiding places several times after the raid. Both of them survived. Bennie went to Amsterdam after the end of the war and became an accountant. In 1950 he joined a Jeshiva in Aix-en-Provence for two years and after that emigrated to Jerusalem. He stayed in contact with the Te Linderts family and often visited Silvolde and the Jewish cemetery of Terborg. Bennie died in 1999 and left behind his wife Ruth and eleven children. The Te Linderts were granted the Yad Vashem Award “Righteous Among the Nations” posthumously in May 2008.
http://tobiasherz.de/familie-asser-wolf-silvolde