In the spring of 2019, I came into contact with Rob Kay, a journalist from the United States. He is the son of Carla Magnus-Kay. Carla is a descendant of the Jewish Magnus family from Hamburg. She left Germany with her parents in 1932. Carla survived the Nazis thanks to the help of the Amsterdam resistance. Rob told me that his mother did not want to reveal much about her time in Amsterdam during her life. I had previously researched some things about another Jewish family. Rob was aware of this and asked me if I could try to reconstruct the Amsterdam period in his mother's life. As background information, he sent me a copy of the file that is located in Germany and that was compiled during the procedure that was followed in the context of the so-called "Wiedergutmachung". In the following, I sometimes refer to these documents. This is the story I was able to tell Rob Kay and his brother Stephen.
Carla Magnus (Hamburg, 1925) was the daughter of Leon Lase Magnus (Hamburg, 1887) and Regina Kirsch (Berlin, 1892). Leon was a descendant of a Jewish family from Hamburg, with ancestors in Copenhagen, Denmark. The Hamburg branch originated around 1700.
With the rise of Nazism in Germany, the Jewish population was gradually excluded from society. They lost their professions and positions, they were discriminated against and threatened. As a result, a stream of refugees started, also to the Netherlands.
Immediately after Hitler came to power in 1933, it was clear to many German Jews that they had to find a safe haven. Leon and Regina had already made their decision: they emigrated at the end of 1932. The Netherlands was an obvious destination: it was close by. However, the Dutch government pursued a strict policy. Only people with valid papers and sufficient money could enter the Netherlands. The documents show that Leon Magnus was quite wealthy when he left Hamburg. Another document states that he had trained as a banker. It would not have been difficult for him to obtain an immigration permit.
Between 1933 and 1937 alone, 35,000 German Jews crossed the Dutch border. A large number moved on. However, when the Second World War broke out in 1940, there were still approximately 15,000 German Jews in the Netherlands. A relatively large number had gone to live in Amsterdam South, in the vicinity of the Beethovenstraat. In this district, which was built in the 1920s and 1930s, the streets were named after famous composers and painters. The apartments are quite spacious, it is still a popular but expensive residential area. The Leon Magnus family also settled here, in a 5-room apartment at Watteaustraat 20. Leon started an export company that maintained contact with his family living in Guatemala.
Also Gertrud Magnus (Hamburg, 1881) and Selma Magnus (Hamburg, 1893), two sisters of Leon, came to Amsterdam. The Amsterdam aliens register shows that Gertrud and her husband Elias Nathan Kohan regularly stayed in the Netherlands for long periods between 1900 and 1917. Elias had died in Berlin in 1926. In January 1939, Gertrud came to Amsterdam permanently. Selma also came as a widow, her husband Leopold Lilienfeld (1867) died in Hamburg in 1925. Selma died in Amsterdam in 1941 and is considered a victim of the Holocaust. She had a son, Gerd, who was born in Amsterdam in 1936. The boy had his mother's surname, but on his personal card in the civil administration Max Jüdell (Hamburg, 1893), albeit crossed out, Gerd is mentioned as a son. Max lived in the same house as Selma, Achillesstraat 120, not far from Carla’s house. Max’s personal card states that he was a technical service employee at the Jewish Council. Gertrud lived in Roerstraat 22, also quite close to Leon and Regina. She rented out rooms. This sister of Leon died in Sobibor on 26 March 1943, the same day that he and Regina were murdered.
When Carla Magnus came to Amsterdam, she was 7 and her brother René was 5 years old. Both children must have gone to primary school in their neighbourhood. Like Anne Frank, they probably lived a more or less normal family life with their father Leon, mother Regina, their aunts and baby nephew and their Dutch and Jewish school friends. They were members of the Jewish community, René had his Bar Mitzvah on 29 July 1939.
Everything changed in 1940. On 10 May, the Germans attacked the Netherlands. After the bombing of Rotterdam, the Dutch military had to capitulate and the Nazis took over the government of the country. Initially, it seemed that normal life could continue. Many of the approximately 140,000 Jews in the Netherlands thought it was not that bad. But from the summer of 1940, the first anti-Jewish measures were implemented. Measures were taken to isolate the Jews step by step. A selection: in July, ritual slaughter was banned. In August, it was decided that Jews could no longer work in government service. Government employees had to sign a 'declaration of Aryanism'. They had to declare that they were not Jewish. Jewish employees were dismissed. Jews were banned from markets. In September, Jewish newspapers were banned. In January 1941, all Jews and all persons with at least one Jewish grandparent had to register in the population register of their municipality. Cinemas, restaurants, cafes, swimming pools, beaches and some parks were declared off-limits to Jews. Identity cards of Jews had to be provided with a stamp with a “J”. From 3 May 1942, all Jews aged 6 and older had to wear the yellow Star of David with the word “Jew” visible on their clothing. Carla has stated that she and her parents did so.
In February 1941, the Nazis ordered the establishment of a Jewish Council, to represent the Jews of Amsterdam. They obliged the chairman of the Dutch Israelite Synagogue, Mr. Abraham Asscher, together with two rabbis, to form such a council. Asscher agreed and he and Professor David Cohen established the Council. Both men later stated that they did not hesitate to accept the chairmanship and they were not the only ones who did not hesitate: the Jews who were approached by Asscher and Cohen thought that they could exert influence through the Jewish Council and did not expect the Jewish Council to become merely an instrument of the Nazis.
On 26 June, the Jewish Council was informed by the Germans about the imminent deportation of Jews to the East.
From September 1941, Jewish children were no longer allowed to attend public schools. Carla was 16 years old, she was probably in secondary school. She started training as a childcare worker in a Jewish children's home. There was such a home in the Breughelstraat, not far from the Watteaustraat. She probably received her training there. The colleagues may have given her a hint to ask for a statement from the Jewish Council that she worked as a childcare worker. She had this document (see appendix). This statement released her from the "Arbeitseinsatz", the obligation to "work" in Germany. She received a stamp on her identity card showing her exemption.
On October 30, 1942, she obtained her diploma for childcare worker (see appendix).
Jews were rounded up and detained by the Germans from February 1941 onwards, but the mass deportations began in August 1942. Leon and Regina, the parents of Carla and René, were picked up at their home on 10 December 1942. The Nazis said that the Jews were going to a labour camp. What that really meant, no one knew at the time. Leon and Regina were transferred to Westerbork, a transit camp in the province of Drenthe, and from there to Sobibor, where they were murdered on 26 March 1943. Gertrud suffered the same fate. Little Gerd was taken away together with his father Max Jüdell on 1 November 1943. He was murdered in Auschwitz that same month. Max survived in Auschwitz until 31 March 1944.
Carla said that she fled with her brother to Plantage Franschelaan 13, the youth centre of the Jewish Council. The population register shows that they were indeed registered there on 28 December 1942. Carla was exempted from the Jewish Council by her. René was apparently able to evade arrest.
Plantage Franschelaan was located in a neighbourhood where the more affluent Jews lived, such as doctors, civil servants and rabbis. At number 8 was located one of the three Jewish hospitals in Amsterdam, the Portuguese-Israelite Hospital and the Old Women's Home. The headquarters of the Diamond Workers' Union, the first trade union in the Netherlands, was also located in the same street. The diamond industry in the Netherlands was a completely Jewish affair. After the war, Plantage Franschelaan was renamed Henri Polaklaan. Henri Polak was the chairman of the diamond workers' union and a highly respected citizen of Amsterdam. In the Shoah, 201 people who lived on the Plantage Franschelaan were murdered.
Between November 1941 and April 1943, 45 young people were registered in the youth centre of the Jewish Council. I found that 19 of them died in Auschwitz, Sobibor or other camps. No information is available about the other 26. René lived here until the beginning of May. Although his sister warned him repeatedly that he had to hide, he was arrested anyway. Carla once told her son Rob that he had given up. That he was tired of hiding all the time. Understandable for a 16-year-old. And of course he had no idea what was in store for him if he would be arrested. He was was arrested in early May 1943. He was killed in Sobibor on the 28th of that month.
As mentioned, Carla obtained her childcare diploma on 30 October 1942. She must have worked in this profession between this date and June 1943. On 18 June 1943, she moved from Plantage Franschelaan to Jacob Obrechtstraat 92. At the time, this was the address of the Central Israeli Hospital. She worked there as a maid.
In 1957, in the context of the Wiedergutmachungsclaim that Carla and her lawyer were preparing against the German government, a very important statement was made by Mrs. Henriette Cornelia (Jet) Wichers Hoeth. This statement is attached as an appendix.
Mrs. Wichers Hoeth was a social worker in 1943 and also a member of the resistance. Her resistance group (Group 2000, see also https://jacobavantongeren.nl/henriette-cornelia-wichers-hoeth/Group 2000 ) focused primarily on supporting Jews in hiding. The group provided false identity cards, false food coupons and shelter. Mrs. Wichers Hoeth was 32 years old at the time in 1943.
Mrs. Wichers Hoeth stated that she came into contact with Carla in the autumn of 1943. At the time, Carla was staying at a transit address, that is, a temporary illegal shelter. From there, Carla had to be transferred to a suitable, preferably permanent address. Carla told Mrs. Wichers that she had lived and worked as a servant in the Central Israeli Hospital. This Jewish hospital had been raided several times by the Nazis. On 13 August 1943, the situation was so serious that Carla decided to flee. According to a friend of René from that time, Arnold Levor, with who Rob Kay was able to speak in 2019, Carla took off her Star of David and walked through the cordon of German soldiers and Dutch police. Carla then apparently came into contact with the resistance and was placed in a hiding place.
Mrs. Wichers Hoeth could not remember the address of the transit shelter. All hiding places are mentioned in the documents. It must have been the first address: Ferdinand Bolstraat 103, with the De Geus family. Probably Dirk de Geus and his wife Lucie. Dirk was a French teacher, about 37 in 1943. He was very active in the resistance in Amsterdam, but was arrested and shot by the Germans in January 1945. A photo of Dirk: https://www.eerebegraafplaatsbloemendaal.eu/dirk-de-geus
Mrs. Wichers Hoeth managed to house Carla in a small attic room in an annex of the Lutheran Diaconessenhuis in Amsterdam. This is also a hospital, but with a Lutheran signature. Carla had to use a different name and was given false identity papers. The conditions were that she was not allowed to leave the house and had no contact with the outside world. Mrs. Wichers Hoeth pretended to be her aunt. She visited Carla occasionally and provided her with food distribution cards. As Mrs. Wichers Hoeth recalled, Carla was in hiding here until about the spring of 1944. She had to move because of a threatened inspection of all hospitals and was transferred to temporary accommodation with the Van Essen family at Quellijnstraat 36. Later he was housed at Lairessetraat 6, in the home of judge Jasper Boon. She was able to stay there for a few months. A daughter of Boon, Jenny, was married to Willem Jan van Heeckeren. According to Rob, they had regular contact with Carla when she lived in the United States.
When the situation for illegal immigrants in Amsterdam deteriorated further, the resistance group decided to accommodate Carla outside the city. In one of the documents, the Kirpensteijn family is mentioned, Krullelaan 17 in Zeist, about 70 kilometers from Amsterdam. It was probably the family of Cornelis Kirpensteijn (1902) and his wife Antonia. Cornelis was a carpenter. It is not clear how long she stayed there. Her last hiding place was with the Ritmeester family, van Dijcklaan 17 in Bilthoven. She lived here when the Netherlands was liberated on May 5, 1945.
Carla probably lived here until her emigration to the United States. She followed a typing course in Utrecht, near Bilthoven. She received her diploma in 1946. In July 1947, Carla emigrated to the United States. There she married John Lewis Kay in October.
January 1, 2025
