Moritz Velleman

The following was submitted by David Velleman, and posted by Adina Genn.

Moritz Velleman, 50-year resident of Port Washington, died on April 28, 2013, in Greenport, New York, at the age of 96.

Moritz Velleman was born in Amsterdam and grew up in Antwerp. On May 12, 1940, he and most of his family fled from the German invasion of Belgium, eventually making their way to the United States. After basic…

I was born in Amsterdam (Holland) but when I was four years old my parents moved back to Antwerp (Belgium) where they had lived before the First World War. I lived there for the next twenty years until the Germans invaded Belgium in 1940.

We left Antwerp on May 12, 1940, two days after the Germans invaded Belgium. My parents, my sister and I went first to La Panne on the Belgian coast, believing t…