Spoorlaan 57

Franz Friedheim (1882) and Johanna Friedheim-Maass (1891) were German Jewish refugees. Until their flight they lived in Essen with their two children, Hans (1918) and Marlies (1920). Because they had lived there for generations, Germany was their homeland. Franz had a good job in a large furniture store and the family lived in a quiet suburb in a two-storey house with a large garden where many neighboring children always came to play. They were liberally Jewish, did not notice any anti-Semitism and hardly interacted with other Jews because they did not live in their neighbourhood. They went to the synagogue only on the high feast days. However, this all changed after the Nazis came to power in 1933 and anti-Jewish sentiment increased in Germany. All kinds of measures came into effect, such as banning Jews from eating in restaurants. Because of their Jewishness the children were expelled from school and one day son Hans was beaten up. In 1934 they decided that the time had come for them to leave Germany. Part of the family had previously emigrated to Palestine and Argentina, but Franz and Johanna wanted to stay closer to their homeland.

Franz found a business partner to start a blanket and bedspread factory together on Kerkstraat in Amsterdam. In 1935 he went to live in Hilversum and a year later the whole family was able to live in Hollandsche Rading, Spoorlaan 57. A few years later, the Jansen family came to live next to them at number 59, with whom they developed a good relationship. After the German invasion in 1940, the Friedheim family again had to deal with anti-Jewish measures. Father Franz had to withdraw from his Amsterdam business and Hans and Marlies were advised to work on a farm to be protected against deportation. Hans found work on the farm of the Griffioen family on Graaf Floris V Weg in Hollandsche Rading and Marlies with farmer Hennipman, also in Hollandsche Rading. In July 1942, however, they received the call to report "for work in Germany under police supervision". From Maliebaan station in Utrecht they were transported to camp Westerbork. Neighbor Hans Jansen came to their aid and managed to get them released after two weeks. He arranged statements from farmers Griffioen and Hennipman stating that Hans and Marlies were indispensable on both farms because Griffioen was partially paralyzed and Hennipman's wife could not work due to kidney disease. Hans and Marlies were given safe conduct from Westerbork and returned to Hollandsche Rading.

In September, however, they were forced to move to Amsterdam with their parents. At 36 Nicolaas Witsenkade, the four of them lived in one room with a Jewish woman in a neighborhood where many other Jewish people also lived. There were regular roundups and they always had their backpacks ready. Shopping was difficult because as a Jew you were only allowed to enter the shops after 5 o'clock and almost everything was already sold out. The children Hans and Marlies decided to go into hiding and again got the help of Hans Jansen. Son Hans found shelter with Mrs. Corrie du Fijan, his former English teacher at the Gymnasium Hilversum and her roommate Sophie Blommers. Daughter Marlies found a hiding place in Rotterdam with Pim Roest and Riet van der Vaart and their two small children. After the war, Marlies tells that hiding addresses and false papers had also been arranged for her parents, but that they did not want to go into hiding because, as her mother said: "if all Jews have to leave, then I will go too."

Franz and Johanna Friedheim-Maass were deported from Amsterdam to Westerbork on 6 March 1943. Their names are on a transport list of the train that left Westerbork on 27 April 1943 for the Sobibor extermination camp in Poland. All 1,205 people on this transport list were killed. After three days in a freight car without facilities, they were murdered in the gas chambers immediately after arrival in Sobibor on April 30, 1943.

Son Hans continued his father's business after the war, married in 1949 and had four children, a son and three daughters. The family always went to commemoration of the dead on 4 May, but father Hans never revealed anything about his life in the war to his children. He always kept in touch with the Jansen family, the Griffioen family and his women in hiding. He passed away in 2006. Daughter Marlies emigrated to Australia and died there shortly after her hundredth birthday.

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