Leentje also survived the Holocaust, albeit in a different way than her brother Lazarus. She was born on 27 December 1913 in Rotterdam and she worked there as a seamstress. On 8 June 1936 she married in Rotterdam Maurice Fleurima, a sailor who was born on Haiti on 6 February 1902 as a son of Meina Fleurima and Jeanvier Rosenna. Documents from the archive of Rotterdam show that Maurice also has earned a living as commercial traveler and as an artist.
After the wedding, Leentje and Maurice have lived at various addresses – mostly lodgings – and had three children there, of whom the twin Milna and Louis in 1936 and a daughter Rosalina Jeanetta in 1937. Their first address on 30 June 1936 was the Westewagenstraat 2a, a lodging and their last known adres in Rottterdam was on 6 March 1939 Lijnbaanstraat 13b. In between they have moved at least ten times.
During the mandatory registration of all Jews in the Netherlands, which happened in Den Haag in April 1942, the Fleurima family (Maurice, Leentje and three children) lived at Rembrandtstraat 162 in Den Haag, located in the northern part of the Schilderswijk (Painters District). On 24 February 1943, the were carried off - five in number - to Westerbork.
Notes on the registration card of Maurice show, that there has been quite some correspondence, like the request of the “Antragstelle” to the Jewish Council of Den Haag: “can you have clothing etc. for him and family (a family of five), taken from the sealed house?”. Only on 13 March the following answer was received: “Clothing etc. cannot taken from the house. Luggage already sent by the sister of Leentje Fuld, Marie Huijkzer-Fuld from the Gerard Doustraat 177 in den Haag”.
The family had to stay in barrack 51 where on 3 March their few luggage was brought to. The next day the Jewish Council of Den Haag informs the Antragstelle that for Milna, Louis and Rosalina Jeanetta a “negative declaration” had been issued, so the children could be considered as non-Jewish.
However, already on 9 March the Fleurmia-Fuld family was put on transport to Liebenau, an internment camp in southern Germany; Maurice was then sent to Tittmoning, a middelaged castle in the Bavarian town of the same name, which had the function of internment camp since 1942.
In 1944, thanks to the father’s Haitian passport, the family was eligible for a prisoner of war exchange at the expense of the US government. On board the sheo Bieville, they left Europe and settle in Aruba. (source: J.F.Focke/Sanne Bolt).
Sources include the City Archive of Rotterdam, family registration cards of Louis Fuld and Maurice/Maurits Fleurima; website wiewaswie/wedding Fleurima x Fuld; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Maurits Fleurima, Leentje Fleurima-Fuld, louis, Milna and Rosina Jeanetta Fleurima; the Wikipedia website Jodentransporten vanuit Nederland.nl and the website Stichting Jodenvervolging Leiden.