Eva and Abraham Beem were

Dutch Jew The history of the Jews in the Netherlands began largely in the 16th century when they began to settle in Amsterdam and other cities. It has continued to the present. During the Netherlands in World War II, occupation of the Netherlands by Naz ...

ish siblings and victims of the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. They had been given new identities with a Christian family in an attempt to evade deportation by the Nazis, but were discovered and deported to

Auschwitz concentration camp Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...

. They were murdered in the

gas chamber A gas chamber is an apparatus for killing humans or other animals with gas, consisting of a sealed chamber into which a poisonous or asphyxiant gas is introduced. Poisonous agents used include hydrogen cyanide and carbon monoxide. Histor ...

upon their arrival on 6 March 1944.

Biography

Eva (born 21 May 1932) and Abraham (born 13 June 1934) Beem were born in

Leeuwarden Leeuwarden (; fy, Ljouwert, longname=yes /; Town Frisian: ''Liwwadden''; Leeuwarder dialect: ''Leewarden'') is a city and municipality in Friesland, Netherlands, with a population of 123,107 (2019). It is the provincial capital and seat of the ...

, in the northern Netherlands. Their father, Hartog Beem, was a German teacher, and their mother was Rosette Beem. Both parents were Jews, and active in the Jewish community. When

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

invaded the country in 1940, the Nazis started to separate the Jews from the general population and prohibited them from working. The Beem parents, realizing that they were in danger, decided to go into hiding. Eva and her younger brother Abraham were sent to the town of Ermelo to live with a Christian family. They were given new identities: Abraham was given the name Jan de Witt and Eva was Linni de Witt. They attended the local school, and were able to send letters (albeit in code) to their parents. By 1944, the Nazis realized that Jewish children were being sent into hiding in rural villages. They found that some people were willing, in return for payment, to reveal hiding places of Jewish children. In February 1944, four Dutch policemen raided the home where the children where being housed, and after forcing Abraham to undress to reveal that he was

circumcised Circumcision is a surgical procedure, procedure that removes the foreskin from the human penis. In the most common form of the operation, the foreskin is extended with forceps, then a circumcision device may be placed, after which the foreskin ...

, arrested them. The children were deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp and murdered in the gas chambers immediately upon arrival. Eva was 11 years old and Abraham was 9. The children's father and mother survived the Holocaust; they were not told of their children's deaths until after the war. Eva and Abraham's story was first published in 1988 by Teake Zijlstra, a journalist at the ''

Leeuwarder Courant The ''Leeuwarder Courant'' is the oldest daily newspaper in the Netherlands. Founded by Abraham Ferwerda, it first appeared in 1752. The ''Leeuwarder Courant'' was the first paper in the Dutch province Friesland and its capital Leeuwarden. It is ...

''. The surviving policeman was spared the death penalty because he was deemed to have acted in the line of duty. The Beem children's story is on display at the '' Hollandsche Schouwburg'' (Dutch Theater) Holocaust memorial in Amsterdam; this location served as a transit station for Jews being deported after July 1942, as well as in the Dutch Resistance Museum, a part of the

Fries Museum The Fries Museum (Frisian Museum) is a museum in Leeuwarden, Netherlands. It has won the Global Fine Art Award which is sometimes nicknamed the Museum-Oscar. History (1881-2012) The museum was founded on 13 April 1881 by the "''Provincial Friesch ...

in Leeuwarden.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beem, Eva and Abraham 1932 births 1934 births 1944 deaths Dutch people who died in Auschwitz concentration camp Children who died in Nazi concentration camps People from Leeuwarden People killed by gas chamber by Nazi Germany Dutch Jews who died in the Holocaust Jewish children who died in the Holocaust Dutch civilians killed in World War II