Lena was born in Amsterdam on December 20, 1919, the fair-haired youngest child of Sara and Juda Lakmaaker.
Lena married Barend Halberstad in 1942, living on the second floor of a small apartment with her mother-in law.One day while Lena and Barend were away, her mother-in-law was cleaning the front steps when SS guards took her to a holding centre at the local cinema for the night.Barend went there to say goodbye to his mother, before she was taken to Auschwitz.Lena's sister Henny, who was married and had three young children, was packing her best clothes, after being directed by the nazis to take herchildren and proceed to the train station.Lena asked her: "Where do you think you are going, to a holiday place?Please don't go!"Henny didn't believe her and said: "What are they going to do with us all?"
Although ordered to do so by the nazis, Lena never visibly wore her yellow star of David, keeping it hidden beneath her coat.She was extremely brave.When her parents were taken away by train she said goodbye by mingling among the SS guards at the station.
As the situation worsened, Lena and Barend decided to try their luck, going separate ways. Barend, a shipbuilder, had documents to work in shipyards.Lena had heard of Jan - a righteous Gentile - who helped Jews to go underground.There were approximately 15 Jews in their hiding house; more came later.Lena was constantly scared, because the others argued and made noise, attracting their neighbours' attention.Jan had a wife and two children.Having no money, Lena didn't pay him, but the others paid for food.He didn't take much; he was a religious Christian who read the Old Testament nightly.One night Lena had a dream about being picked up by the SS.She used to go every three days to Jan's parents' house to sew.On the night after the dream, she went to them because she felt unsafe.She walked for one-and-a half hours in the freezing cold to his parents' house.Jan's parents lived on a dairy farm, and she made herself useful making clothes.Lena had a special gift for creating beautiful things.
This saved her life on occasions where she sewed and received her payment in food.Later Lena learned that the night she escaped, the SS came and took everybody from the house including Lena's niece and the righteous gentile.Lena was saved by her dream.Had she stayed at the house she would also have been taken.The SS released Jan because he gave them names of Jews.The SS had earlier tortured him for information, and some accused him of being a traitor.That December Jan told Lena she couldn't stay any longer with his parents because he was afraid for them.Since he didn't tell the SS about Lena, he asked her to leave.Nobody wanted to help her because they were all scared.Jan said she could hide in a school, which she did, then later went to the Dutch resistance.They helped and gave her travelling papers using a false identity.They sent her to a farm owned by a widow from German royalty.Germans would attend frequently for dinner, and Lena's job was to set the table, clean and sew.When nobody was around, people would come to the farm begging for food - there were abundant preserves in jars and tins - andLena gave food to the starving people.The widow's son began flirting with Lena, making her feel uncomfortable.
A Dutch girl, who worked with Lena and came from a family of eight, suggested Lena live with them.So she went to stay with the girl's family for three months.They didn't know Lena was Jewish, so luck was again onher side.One day Lena decided to leave and attempt to find her husband Barend.Lena's philosophy was that one did not need stacks of money.She survived on her wits and sheer endurance during the war, and without a cent in her pocket.She felt God always gave her a premonition, so she moved on from where she was staying.Many times the people she stayed with the previous night were taken by the Nazis.Lena was reunited by accident with Barend in 1945.
He had spent time working with other Dutchmen, draining areas of sea to reclaim land.During that period there was a raid by the SS and they sent everybody to a labour camp in Germany.Barend escaped with the help of an army doctor - not a Nazi.He eventually met with Lena in Holland at a police station, where she was sewing for a police officer and his wife.Lena and Barend stayed with the couple for the duration of the war.At one stage, Lena sold her husband's wedding ring so a Jewish family who were begging for food could buy supplies.Her husband later joked about how she didn't sell her own ring.After losing all of their family to the war, Lena and Barend, together with their two daughters Jeannette and Sonja, decided in 1956 to migrate to Australia to begin a new life.
This story was narrated by Lena to her daughter Jeannette.