Brazilian cigar box

Abigael de Vries was born on January 5, 1906, in Amsterdam, Netherlands. She had two children, Johannes (Hansje) Nolte, born on February 4, 1931, and Ingeborg, born in December 1931. Both children had the same father, a German, non-Jewish man whom Abigael met while living in Berlin, Germany. The relationship with the children's father did not work out and Abigael returned to Amsterdam. Germany occupied the Netherlands on May 10,1940. Hansje and Inge had to transfer to a Jewish school, as Jewish children were no longer allowed to attend Dutch public schools. On May 26, 1943, the family was deported to the Westerbork internment camp. Males and females were housed in separate barracks, but Abigael was determined that they should stay together and kept Hansje with them in the women's barracks. Food was scarce in the camp. Hansje decided to help with the distribution of food to get additional rations for his family. While serving one day, a big pot of boiling water spilled on his legs; he had to get medical attention, but he recovered. Inge and Hansje were able to attend an informal school. Inge witnessed other Jews getting deportation notices to concentration camps and saw the bodies of some who hanged themselves in the barrack washroom. On September 13, 1943, Inge, Hansje, and 19 other children, who were declared by the Germans as Mischlinge (born of one non-Jewish parent), were released from Westerbork and sent back to Amsterdam. Abigael was deported the next day to Bergen Belsen concentration camp. On January 25, 1944, she was transported to Theresienstadt which was liberated by the Russian Army on May 9, 1945. The Americans sent her home to Amsterdam in July 1945. Abigael was placed in quarantine for several weeks in Eindhoven and then was reunited with her children. During her absence and after their release from Westerbork, Hansje and Inge had been placed in an orphanage in Amsterdam. Abigael's sisters, Rebecca and Heintje, who were married to non-Jewish Dutchmen, took the children into their homes: Hansje by Rebecca; Inge by Heintje. In the spring of 1945, food was desperately scarce in Holland. On April 23, 1945, while the children were out foraging for coal, a German soldier had shot Hansje in the neck; the fourteen years old boy was paralyzed from his neck down. Abigael sent Inge to Copenhagen, Denmark, for at least six months to regain her health, as Holland still did not have enough food. Hansje died of his wounds on July 11, 1946.

The cigar box was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2009 by Diana Nikkels, the granddaughter of Abigael de Vries and the daughter of Ingeborg de Vries Nikkels.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Diana Nikkels