The family stayed in Bilthoven with their grandmother and her other children. They all had left Germany legally and were not classified as refugees. There eagerly anticipated emigration. Which was delayed for several nerve-wracking days because Jakob Scheuer’s papers were not in order. On September 1, 1939, when World War II broke out, the Dutch borders were closed for emigration to England. Even though they finally had the legal papers they were not allowed to leave. Our only hope was to try to go to America. Again, we painstakingly gathered all the necessary papers. Even the ship passage was booked from Rotterdam. By May of 1940, the family had all the necessary arrangements to leave Holland for America. They were told that our immigration papers were all in the American Consulate Office in Rotterdam they were all very excited that we could be together again and at the prospect of moving to a new country. Jakob and Helene Scheuer had been in regular contact with their relatives who had emigrated to the United States earlier, so we had already heard much about life there from there family in Omaha, Nebraska (Frieda and Morris Erman) and San Francisco, California (sisters Hilda Scheuer and Erna Levy).
Then as fate will have it, on May 10, 1940, the Nazi’s invaded Holland. On May 14, 1940, the German Air Force bombed Rotterdam. The immigration papers that would have allowed our family to leave for America were destroyed in the bombing. We heard about it on the radio, and we were completely divested by the news. Once again, we did not know what would become of our family. This event drastically changed the future of to the Scheuer family. It would be several years and many trades goes later when Ilse and Ruth ( the only survivors of the family) would finally be able to leave Holland.
Who knows how close we had actually been to escaping the horrors that would soon visit my family and millions of others? We will never know, but always wonder.
The family stayed in Bilthoven with there grandmother till 1942. During that time they joined there father (Jakob Scheuer) voluntarily at Camp Westerbork. The family join their father voluntarily at Westerbork and was afe until 1944.
