Hoogstraat 31

These Stumbling Stones at the intersection of Kerkstraat and Hoogstraat were laid on 6 April 2010, together with Stumbling Stones in Tilburg and Roosendaal. They commemorate Joseph, Elisabeth Johanna and Johanna Sientje de Vries, who were murdered on April 16, 1943 in Sobibor.

Joseph de Vries and his two sisters started a butcher shop on Hoogstraat, which was in 1913. The de Vries family lived on Hoogstraat for thirty years and were part of the Werkendamse community. Some photos of the place where they lived are included in this story.
The de Vries family receive a written order to report. When Werkendam announced that she had to report, they were told to go into hiding, their addresses were offered. They said: 'what will they do to us now, we are old people.'

Dr. T. Brienen wrote: “Joseph was a kosher butcher and because my father (D.A. Brienen) was also a butcher, there was mutual contact. Especially the ladies de Vries visited us a lot and helped my mother in the household and keeping the butcher shop clean. They were called Aunt Liesbeth and Aunt Hanna by us. Aunt Hanna taught me to dry, she said that I should not dry the blades with the sharp side pointing to my fingers, but with the back side. I learned a lot from them. When they were called to report, they said to my parents, “Oh, we'll be back in a minute, because we haven't done anything wrong. You know that too !! ” Yes, we knew that, they were people's treasures. '

She and others had not yet heard of the madness of the Nazi system. Or maybe heard, but not able to understand how bad it was.

On the early morning of Tuesday, April 13, 1943, a German raid car entered Werkendam. He stopped in the Kruisstraat, corner Hoogstraat. The Germans entered the butcher's shop of Joop de Vries and took Joop, Liesbeth and Hanneke with them. It was early, it was still quiet on the street, some children were just on their way to school. Eyewitnesses have seen this and tell what they saw years later.
Dr. T. Brienen: 'I can still see them leaving. Aunt Hanna with a bag in hand. And… I never saw them again !! ‟
Adriaan Visser Corn. zn. said:

"We lived on the Sasdijk, so when I had to go to school I walked from the Sasdijk into the Kruisstraat and from there to the Reformed school on the Hoogstraat. On that morning, a robbery truck with an officer behind it and a soldier at the tailgate stood at the Kruisstraat / Hoogstraat intersection. The tail lift was down. I was standing at the shop of the Velzen sisters, who lived next to the entrance of the Reformed Church. And I could see very well what happened. The two sisters de Vries and their brother Joseph de Vries lived on the Hoogstraat, where there is now a hairdressing salon. They came out that morning. The sisters each carried a handbag and Joseph a small brown wicker suitcase. The de Vries family was helped in the car and the tail lift went up and the sail was lowered, so that no one could see that they were in the car. I did not know where they were being taken, and perhaps they did not know it themselves. Many, many years later, there was a television program about the death camps, where mountains of hair and shoes were shown.

There were also images of stacks of suitcases and ………. On a small brown suitcase the name “De Vries” could be read. Would that have been the same briefcase with which Joseph de Vries met his death? '

Barend van de Werken: I have a sad memory of the Jews being taken away there. On the day of their deportation, as a ten-year-old boy I was on my way to the Reformed school at 't Opperd. Coming from the direction of the Square, I walked to school. At the house of Joop de Vries, I saw him and his two sisters come out of their house and cross the street, towards Hanneske Visser's shoe store. Behind them was a German soldier with the rifle at the ready. A German robbery truck stood in front of Hanneske's shop. It was a car with a loading platform and tailgate. The cargo area was covered with tarpaulin, which was stretched over brackets. Benches were arranged on either side of the loading bench. It could also have been permanent banks. Joop, Liesbeth and Hanna climbed into the box, after which the soldier lifted the tilt and also sat down on the bench with the rifle between his knees. For example, I saw Joop and his sisters on their way through the Kruisstraat, to what turned out to be the gas chambers. We did not know then what awaited them, but as a little boy I felt miserable. After the war I heard people claim that they could have gone into hiding, that there were people who wanted to help them, but that they did not want to help themselves. Years after the war I worked at the municipal secretariat of Werkendam. The then head of the Population, Civil Registry and Military Affairs Department once showed me some ID cards dating from the wartime. I recognized them immediately and saw that there was something special about it. A “J” was stamped over the full length. It turned out to be the identity cards of Joop, Hanneke and Liesbeth de Vries. The "J" stood for Jew. They appeared to have been returned to Werkendam after the family's 'Entlösung' with 'Deutsche Grundlichkeit', I assume directly from Westerbork. Those identity cards are in the Biesbosch Museum.

After the Germans had arrested our fellow villagers in Werkendam, they were put directly on the train via Westerbork. A terrible train ride in freight wagons, no food and drink, hardly any sanitary, no room to sit. The train carried 1204 deportees, including Joseph, Hanna and Liesbeth de Vries. On April 16, 1943 they arrived in Sobibor. ALL were immediately taken to the gas chambers. For example, 19 trains ran from Westerbork between March 3 and July 20, 1943. 34,313 Dutch Jews were transported to Sobibor, there were 18 survivors. The remaining 34,295 were terribly destroyed.

รำลึกถึงที่นี่

แผ่นป้ายที่นี่เสียหายหรือหายไปหรือไม่? แจ้งให้เราทราบทางอีเมล