What we know about Fritz Blau and his family
This story has been written by the daughters of Tinie Stooker, Toos de Wit and Annette van Putten, to memorise Fritz, Minie and Dorie Blau. It is the story how it was told by Tinie, now aged 88 years old and still suffering by what happened:.
Probably Fritz Blau (May 30, 1910 Bielitz), and his wife, Mina Lisa Muntner (March 9, 1914 Czernowitz), fled from Austria (Vienna) to the Netherlands in the thirties. The exact date of arrival in Holland is unknown, but we do know that they stayed in Rotterdam, where their daughter Magdalena Dora Lieselotte was born on December 4 1939. In Rotterdam Fritz and Minnie met the Jewish violin builder Otto Blitz, who was married to Alie Leensma, a niece of our granddads.
On September 9 1940, the Germans forced all foreign Jews to leave the coastal area. As the battle for England had started, the Germans were afraid that the Jews might help their enemy. Also Fritz Blau and his family were forced to leave Rotterdam.
But where to go?! Alie Blitz gave them the address of my granddad, in Maarssen. So they went there.
They arrived – probably in September 1940 - with only one huge suitcase. They asked (they spoke Dutch) for shelter and my granddad and his wife offered their help. Their daughters, Tinie and Toos, moved to the attic and Fritz and his family slept for a couple of nights in their bedroom. As the house was too small, Fritz finally found a place to stay in the centre of the village (Schippersgracht 13). It was the house of the local postman, who moved downstairs with his wife to make room for Fritz and his family.
So Fritz, Minnie and Dorie settled in Maarssen. They made friends. Fritz managed to find a job with a textile wholesaler in Utrecht. He sold underwear, of a high quality, also to the people in Maarssen. He frequently played chess with my granddad. My grandparents (and Mum) passed time, frequently, with Minnie and they loved Dorie. When it was forbidden for Jews to go to public places they took them to a lake where there were no other people to enable them to spend some time in the sun. We have some pictures taken in that period of time. For her 18th birthday Fritz offered our mum a little purse and he apologized that he had not found something better. He promised her to give her something more beautiful after the war.
Meanwhile, the Nazi’s measures against Jews were more and more threatening. So it had been ordered in May 1942 that the Jews had to wear the jellow star, and when after June 30th is was forbidden for Jews to visit non-jewish friends, Fritz did not dare to visit my granddad anymore, because he feared that my granddad might get into trouble by inviting him in the house. As a probable escape Fritz and his family had become Roman Catholic in order to avoid attention from the Germans.
But it was not enough. On Sunday, August 2nd ironically, while they were in church, suddenly a local policeman, on order of the Nazi’s, came to arrest them, like all other catholic Jews on that day. The whole village was shocked and eversince they blamed the policeman for this. Fritz and his family were immediately taken to Westerbork. Coincidently my grandparents had been out the whole day and they heard the news in the evening. Next day they tried to locate them, see if they could help or at least get to say goodbye: they did not succeed. They were gone and they would never see each other again.
Nobody knew exactly what was to happen and for a longtime people in Maarssen waited for them to return. For the 18 year old girl Tiny it was unbearable. Throughout the years she kept the purse given to her by Fritz and she still (2013) is very saddened by what happened to this family.
On August 7th 1942 Fritz, Minnie and Dorie were transported to Auschwitz. Mina Lisa Blau-Muntner (28 years old) and her daughter Magdalena Dora Lieselotte (2 years old) were murdered on arrival. Fritz Blau (32 years old) was first forced to work before he was murdered too in Auschwitz on September 30th 1942.
Stolpersteine
To memorise Fritz, Minie and Dorie “stumblestones” are placed on Schippersgracht 13 on February 27, 2013.
If anyone has more details about this family please adjust.
Magdalena Dora Lieselotte Blau
Magdalena Dora Lieselotte Blau - GENI
Magdalena Dora Lieselotte Blau - Yad Vashem
Mina Lisa Blau-Muntner
Mina Lisa Blau-Muntner - GENI
Mina Lisa Blau-Muntner - Yad Vashem
Fritz Blau
Fritz Blau - GENI
Fritz Blau - Yad Vashem
