Hijman Swaab (HS) was drafted into the Dutch Army on October 24th, where he began his training as a non-commissioned officer on April 1st, 1939 (Corporal on April 10th) and finished as such on July 10th, 1939. HS’s military activity ended on June 11th, 1940. On May 10th, 1940 the German Wehrmacht attacked the Netherlands, which was followed by the Dutch capitulation on May the 14th, 1940.
HS and Hildegard Pampel (HP) met in June 1938 in Amsterdam. HP (born August 24th, 1919 in Hamburg) first worked as a household help and lived at her older sister’s who was married to a Jewish Dutchmen. HS and HP fell in love and got engaged in April 1939. They wanted to get married but as HP needed her father’s consent since she was underage and her father, living in Germany, denied his consent, they could not marry. Once HP was 21 years old and could have decided upon marrying HS on her own, this was no longer possible in the Netherlands since then marriages between Jews and non-Jews were forbidden by the German occupants.
From around March 1941 to mid-September 1942 the couple lived together secretly in Amsterdam-Zuid at Daniel Willinkplein, now known as Viktorieplein. Previously HP became pregnant in June 1940; she gave birth to their daughter Marion on March 17th, 1941 in Amsterdam.
On September 17 th, 1942 HS, in the absence of HP, left the apartment for shopping. In doing so, he was recognized, pursued, denounced and arrested. This was followed by a transfer to a prison in Amsterdam and around mid-November to Amersfoort concentration camp. From December 9th, 1942 he is said to have been in Westerbork Camp in penal barracks 66 and the infirmary. From there he was transported to Ausschwitz on January 18th, where he was dead on January 21st, 1943.
The German authorities forced HP to leave Amsterdam with her daugther in September 1944 and she went back to Hamburg. All her lifetime she felt deep pain and fury about her fiance‘s fate and their lost short happiness. She died in 1987, Marion in 2020.
In HP‘s second marriage I was born in 1952. I got her memories, some documents and a lot of letters from HS to HP, that have yet to be evaluated.
Verhaal