Bertha Tobias and Asser Wolf of Silvolde had four children. Their third child was Jacob, born on December 15, 1892 in Silvolde. He married Henriette de Winter. She was born in Gendringen on April 2, 1898. Their son Alfred was born on September 24, 1924 and son Nico on October 29, 1925.
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 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.
Henriette Wolf and Amalie Mestriz found refuge at the Saalmink farm in Silvolde, while their son Alfred Wolf and Bennie Mestriz 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.
Henriette, Amalie 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.
Henriette, Amalie 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. The Te Linderts were granted the Yad Vashem Award “Righteous Among the Nations” posthumously in May 2008.
http://tobiasherz.de/familie-asser-wolf-silvolde