Esther Werkendam / Hetty Verolme (F / Netherlands, 1930), Holocaust survivor
Esther Werkendam / Hetty Verolme (F / Netherlands, 1930), Holocaust survivor
Samuel Max Werkendam (M / Netherlands, 1931-2005), Holocaust survivor
Zadok Jack Werkendam (M / Netherlands, 1933-2003), Holocaust survivor
- KEYWORDS : <Westerbork> <Bergen-Belsen> <Liberation of Bergen-Belsen> -- <Australia>
Biography
Esther (Hetty) Werkendam was born 24 Feb 1930 in Antwerp, Belgium to Mozes Maurice Werkendam and Hendrika van Kamerik.
In 1931 the Werkendam family moved from Antwerp to Amsterdam, Netherlands, where Samuel Max (22 Jul 1931) and Zadok Jack (12 Apr 1933) were born.
World War II broke out and in May 1940 the Germans occupied the Netherlands.
In 1943, the Werkendam family was transported first to the Westerbork camp for a short stay, then to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. At Bergen-Belsen, Hetty and her brothers, Max and Jack, were sent to Barrack 211, also known as the Children's House.
Sister Luba, a Polish prisoner, saved the children and took full responsibility for the group. Due to Hetty's age, she was tasked with supervising the small children there. She became known as 'Little Mother'.
When World War II was in its last months, the camp experienced a typhus epidemic. Food and water was very limited and the conditions of the barracks were poor. Hetty fell sick, but survived. In April 1945, the British Army liberated Bergen-Belsen. Parents and children all survived.
After the war, the family moved to Australia.
Book : The Children's House of Belsen (2000)
Hetty's family was torn apart following the 1940 German Invasion of the Netherlands and rounded up by the Nazis and then separated from their parents, Hetty and her brothers were sent to the 'Children’s House' in Belsen Concentration Camp. As one of the eldest Hetty became the 'Little Mother' helping to care not only for her siblings but the other children as well. In a direct and powerful style, Hetty recalls one of the remarkable largely untold story of the Holocaust—the extraordinary struggle and survival of this group of 40 children through those terrible years.
Book : Hetty (2010)
An extraordinary story of the struggle and survival of a group of children in a Nazi concentration camp during World War II, this autobiographical tale details the motherly role adopted by the adolescent author during her time in the camp. Adapted from her original autobiography written for adults, this moving memoir—edited and pared back for a younger audience—reveals how Hetty and her siblings survived after they were taken from their parents and encamped at the Children’s House in Belsen, Germany. A remarkable and largely untold account of the Holocaust, this work is an inspirational story of the enduring spirit of children.