Children play at a farm in the Netherlands where Rachel de Groot spent the summer of 1941
Creator(s)
- (Subject)
- Mr. Louis de Groot
- Meijer de Groot (Camera Operator)
Biographical History
Meijer de Groot (1897-1944) and his wife Sophia Swaab de Groot (1900-1944) owned a hardware and electrical appliance store on Rijnstraat in the city of Arnhem, The Netherlands. After being warned of a forthcoming round-up of Jews, the de Groot family left their home in Arnhem to go into hiding in November 1942. Louis (b. 1929) and his sister, Rachel (1927-1944), hid in several dozen places throughout the Netherlands. Rachel eventually joined her parents at their hiding place in Amsterdam, while Louis made it to the home of Dirk and Ann Onderweegs in Lemmer in January 1944. Rachel and her parents were denounced on April 8, 1944, arrested by a Dutch policeman who was a childhood friend of Meijer's, and sent first to Westerbork and then to Auschwitz where they perished. Louis stayed with the Onderweegs until August 1946 when he entered the Jewish Boys Orphanage in Amsterdam. He fought for Israel in 1948, briefly returned to Holland, and emigrated to the United States in 1950, where he married and had two sons.
Scope and Content
Rachel and cousin Henny Cohen spent the summer of 1941 at the farm of Steef and Bertha van der Pol in Zwartebroek when vacation opportunities for Jews were severely limited. Bertha had been the children's nanny before 1936/7. Louis and his parents visited Rachel one day, along with cousin Florence de Groot, who spent her summer vacation with the de Groots in Arnhem while her father was in jail. The children, older now, play at a farm outdoors. Louis pulls Florence in a wagon, with a string attached to the wagon and to his belt, he plays the horse. The de Groot family is walking about, in clogs. Pigs and cattle are walking about. Good MS, Rachel and Henny pose for the camera while trying to stand up straw. The others, including Louis with glasses and the farmer's son William, wave to the camera while in the straw. A woman, Bertha?, milks a cow with no bucket. A man, Steef?, brings two buckets on a board on his shoulders. Rachel milks the cow. Henny milks the cow. Louis milks the cow. They carry the buckets back, with some of the children trying to do it. Then everyone skips towards the camera. Cousin Florence sits on a rock, chickens in the BG, and pretends to smoke a cigarette. Louis pulls more children around in the wagon once more. Children chasing after calves. They feed the cattle, and Florence attempts to lead a cow by a string attached to the cow's horns. The children, then Louis, pretend to milk the cow.
Note(s)
Zwartebroek is in the municipality of Hoevelaken not far from Amersfoort, Netherlands. For more artifacts related to the de Groot family, see USHMM collections with accession numbers 2003.155 and 2009.341
People
- de Groot, Louis.
Subjects
- CARTS/WAGONS
- COWS
- NETHERLANDS
- FARMERS/FARMING
- VACATIONS
- CHILDREN (JEWISH)
- FAMILIES
- SUMMER
- JEWS
Places
- Amersfort, Netherlands
- , Netherlands
Genre
- Amateur.
- Film