Catharina Brucker was born on 19th December 1917 in Rotterdam. She was married to Jacques Frank in 1941. They were interned in Westerbork with their son Clarence who was born on 1st May 1943, as stated on registration certificates signed by Catharina. Catharina entered the Internment and Transit camp as a Nurse and worked in the Camp Hospital. Her Legitimisation Card dated 09.10.1942 places her in Barracks 58 Bed Number 60. Her husband Jacques was transported to Sobibor on May 25 1943 where he died on May 28.
Catharina had been a dancer from a young age and some girls who were performing in Willy Rosen's Revue, being performed at the camp in August 1943, persuaded her to take part in the show as one of the Westerbork Girls. In the audience, that night with the Kommandant Gemmeker was Adolf Eichmann. Catharina's legs impressed him and after the show, he asked to meet her. He complimented her on her dancing and she thanked him but pointed out it hadn't been too easy as she had a new baby son. For some reason, Eichmann said that when she was due to be sent to the East he would ensure that she went to Theresienstadt. He instructed Gemmeker to order the Dienstleiter, that Catharina and Clarence were to be sent to Theresienstadt Ghetto. She may have told Eichmann and Gemmeker of her wish to see her husband again. If they asked and were told he had gone to Sobibor they knew that he was already dead.
When Catharina was sent East it was indeed to Theresienstadt. Both her "Declaration of Motherhood Certificate" and her "Ausweis" from Theresienstadt, held by the Joods Monument, state that Catharina was deported from Westerbork on Train xxiv/4 and that she was number 211. This train left Westerbork on Friday, February 25, 1944.
A strange turn of events again brought Eichmann and Catharina together again. Charlotte Buresova an artist had been instructed by the Kommandant to paint a picture to brighten up his office. He was expecting a visit from the Red Cross and wanted to make an impression. Buresova saw Catharina and asked to paint her. She painted her as a flamenco dancer and the picture was duly hung in the Kommandant's office. A regular visitor to Theresienstadt was Adolf Eichmann and on his next visit, he saw the painting. He commented that he knew the woman in the picture and Catharina was sent for. He asked her how she was getting on and truthfully she told him it was difficult to have privacy for herself and Clarence in their present Barrack. Eichmann gave instructions that they were to be moved to more fitting accommodation. This was duly done.
Catharina and Clarence saw liberation and returned to Holland as indicated on repatriation documents held by Joods Monument. Catharina remarried and as Mrs Van den Berg, she donated her few documents to the Joods Monument and the paintings by Buresova to Yad Vashem. She died in Spain in 2001.