Jozua Klein was born on April 3, 1901, in Wildervank, The Netherlands. He was married to Rosi Mendel, who was born on March 26, 1906, in Germany. They had 2 children Rita Klein born on April 26, 1933, and Benjamin Klein born on July 30, 1914.
His parents were: Benjamin Klein and Henriette Klein-Mendel. Benjamin was born on September 26, 1872, Wildervank, The Netherlands. Tijdens de oorlog werd hij opgepakt door de Duisters en overleed op 19 November, 1942 in Auschwitz Concentration Camp. Henriette was born on June 18, 1868 te Lenich, Germany and passed away on 25 October, 1940 te Stadskanaal.
The arrest of Jozua Klein
Jozua Klein was head of a salesforce. One day when he visited his salesforce he was followed by the Germans. The Germans also found his salesforce of 8 people. They were escorted to a hotel in The Hague. The next day the non-Jewish salesmen were set free and the Jewish salesman was arrested.
Deportation to Concentration Camp Mauthausen
Rosi Klein was visiting her husband each week. One day in 1940 she visited her husband with a basket full of fruit and during that visit they told her that her husband had been deported to Mauthausen. She never saw never saw her husband anymore. In July 1942 she received a letter from the Red Cross telling her that he had died due to pneumonia. Later she received a letter from the Germans and they told her that her husband was shot dead when he attempted to flee.
When Rosi heard the news that her husband had died in Concentration Camp Mauthausen, she had a nervous breakdown. Her 9-year-old daughter was going to take care of her younger brother and sister, with the help of neighbours and friends.
Rosi and her children had to go into hiding.
With great urgency, her neighbours who worked for the Dutch resistance told her that she and the children should go into hiding. Also in the City of Leiden, where they lived there were almost daily razzias where Jews were being arrested. But Mother Rosi had no interest in this, she had a letter from the doctor that she was too ill to travel. Later that day Mrs. Eem Stoffels came by and convinced Mother Rosi that the letter from the doctor in this case would not help. At 6:30 pm Rosi and her children left the house through the back door and around 7:50 pm the German Gestapo came into the house to arrest the family. The family went into a temporary hiding address and the next day Eem Stoffels and her husband Hyme, who were both active in the resistance and who helped Jewish people to go into hiding. The children Ingrid and Benjamin got on the back of Eem Stoffels's bike and were brought to a hiding address in Oegstgeest. That was when the children became part of a large group of hidden children.
When they arrived in Oegstgeest, the family split. Small Benjamin went into hiding on a farm in Sassenheim. His sister Rita went to a tulip farm in the south of Holland. Mother Klein became a housekeeper when she went into hiding. The irony was that at a certain moment, she worked in a home for elderly ladies in Velp. That home was confiscated by the Germans and became a regional SS headquarters. During that time mother Klein had to work for her archenemy.
The years after the war
After the liberation of the Netherlands in May of 1945, the family with the help of Eem Stoffels was reunited. Mother Klein now had to take care of her children and decided to start a guest house. The children had to help with the chores. At the same time, they started Elementary School. An uncle of Rosi had fled Germany during the war and he had been able to find passage on a boat from Hoek of Holland that would sail to Cuba. From there he emigrated to Miami. After the war, he helped Rosi and her family with emigration to the U.S.A. He had bought a house for Rosi and her family. The uncle was single, but he became a father figure for Rosi’s family. Rosi’s daughter became a Cantor for a Synagogue in Alabama. She is also actively involved in the Holocaust Education Center and shares the survival story of her mother and the family members who did not return from the Concentrations Camps.
Floris van Os
