Ammy and Nico Herschel collection

Nico Louis Herschel (1915-1943) was born on September 20, 1915 to Herman Herschel (January 14, 1887-October 4, 1942) and Rebekka Herschel (Rebecca née Reindorp) in Zwolle, Netherlands. Ammy Weyel (also known as Malchen Weijel) was born on April 3, 1919 to Bernard Weijel and Rebekka Weijel (née Valk) in Zwolle, Netherlands. On March 29, 1942 Nico Louis Herschel married Ammy Weyel. Nico was a Zionist and worked as an economist and a teacher in a Jewish Gymnasium in Enschede. Ammy worked as telephone operator. Seven months after their wedding, the couple was ordered to move into the Hollandsche Schouwburg in Amsterdam, a former Jewish theater where Jews were held prior to their deportation to the Westerbork camp. Ammy was seven months pregnant. The Herschels received permission to leave the theater and they traveled to Zwolle. On December 29, 1942, their son Tswi Josef Herschel was born. In January 1943, the family was ordered to return to the Hollandsche Schouwburg. Nico contacted Mrs. Schwencke, the wife of his former employer, and her daughter Christine, and asked them to hide the infant. They agreed. In April 1943, Tswi Herschel was sent into hiding along with important Herschel family papers. Aged three months, Tswi was sent to live with the de Jongh family, a non-Jewish family, in Ooosterbeek. Willem de Jongh was the head of the resistance movement and his house was the last safe house north of the Rhine River. Willem’s daughter, Wies de Jongh Spyker was recently married and treated Tswi like her own son, referring to him as Henkie de Jongh. In September 1944, the de Jongh house was bombed during the battle of El Alamein. The family escaped serious injury by hiding in the basement. They later moved to either Utrecht or Spakenburg. In May 1945, Rebecca Hershel, Tswi's paternal grandmother located him and took him to live with his aunt Bella Davidson, Nico Hershel’s sister. Bella’s husband, Aron Leonard Davidson (1914-1943) died at Sobibor on July 13, 1943. She later married Philip de Leeuwe. Sources vary regarding if Tswi was raised by his grandmother, Rebecca Hershel, or his aunt Bella. At the age of eight, Tswi discovered the truth regarding the fate of his parents. Until this time he had assumed the de Jongh family were his true parents and that he was forcibly removed from them. Tswi was raised Jewish and studied optometry and mechanical engineering. He was married in 1965 and had two daughters. In 1986 he and his family immigrated to Israel. On October 4, 1942, Herman Herschel, Nico Herschel’s father, perished at Auschwitz concentration camp. In June 1943 Nico and Ammy were deported to the Westerbork camp. On either July 23, 1943 or July 27, 1943 Nico and Ammy Herschel perished at the Sobibor concentration camp.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Tswi Herschel

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Tswi Herschel

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Tswi Herschel

Funding Note: The cataloging of this collection has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.

Tswi J. Herschel donated the Ammy and Nico Herschel collection to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2004, 2007, 2008 and 2009. Each donation was assigned its own accession number: 2004.595.1, 2007.439.1, 2008.326.1, 2010.493.1.