Bloeme Evers-Emden
Encyclopedia
Bloeme Evers-Emden is a Dutch
Jewish
teacher and child psychologist who extensively researched the phenomenon of "hidden children" during World War II and wrote four books on the subject in the 1990s. Her interest in the topic grew out of her own experiences during World War II, when she was forced to go into hiding from the Nazis
and was subsequently arrested and deported to Auschwitz
on the last transport leaving the Westerbork concentration camp on 3 September 1944. Together with her on the train were Anne Frank
and her family, whom she had known in Amsterdam. She was liberated on 8 May 1945.
In the 1980s, Evers-Emden earned a doctorate in developmental psychology
and began interviewing and writing about the phenomenon of "hidden children" from the points of view of the children, their biological parents, their non-Jewish
foster parents, and their non-Jewish foster siblings. She was also interviewed for several television documentaries on her remembrances of Anne Frank and her family before they went into hiding and after they were sent to Auschwitz.
, and Rosa Emden-DeVries, a seamstress. Her younger sister, Via Roosje, was born 29 May 1932.
In 1941 Bloeme attended the Jewish lyceum
, where she befriended Anne Frank and her sister, Margot
. Bloeme was in the same grade as Margot, but in a different class. In July 1942 Bloeme received a deportation order from the local government office. Her father went to the Central Room for Jewish Resettlement and found a sympathetic German who stamped the order "released." She returned to the high school in September, but her class kept shrinking from deportations throughout the year, to the point that only three students were left at the end of the year. By the time oral examinations were administered three weeks later, Bloeme was the only student in her class.
On the first day of the oral examinations in May 1943, Bloeme's non-Jewish boyfriend warned her that the Germans were looking for her. She asked the school board to administer all 12 of her examinations at once, and she received her high school diploma
that same day. When the Germans arrived, they took her to an assembly point for Amsterdam Jews, but she managed to enter the building without being registered. A few days later, she sneaked out with a group of younger teens. At first she hid in the home of Christian friends of her parents who worked in the Dutch underground
, but they were afraid that if they were arrested, Bloeme would be, too. She spent the next year hiding in 15 to 16 different places, including an Amsterdam old-age home and a job as a maid for a widow and her son in Rotterdam
. When she returned to the people who worked in the underground, she was arrested and sent to Westerbork.
in Upper Silesia
. For the filming of the 1995 BBC
documentary Anne Frank Remembered, Bloeme recalled that Anne, Margot, and their mother, Edith
, also planned to join the transport, but Anne was prohibited from joining because she had developed scabies
. Her mother and sister opted to stay with her, and Bloeme went on without them. Bloeme was also interviewed for her remembrances of the Frank women in Auschwitz in the 1988 television documentary The Last Seven Months of Anne Frank
by Dutch filmmaker Willy Lindwer
.
Bloeme was liberated by the Soviets at Liebau on 8 May 1945. She and a small group of friends began walking back to Holland on foot, arriving six weeks later. She discovered that her parents and sister had been deported to the Sobibor extermination camp
, where they all perished.
part-time and became a lecturer in psychology at the University of Amsterdam in 1973. She earned her doctorate in the late 1980s.
In the 1980s she began holding group therapy
sessions for former hidden children, addressing "our grief, our anger, our aggression and our mourning". At the Hidden Child Conference held in Amsterdam in 1992, she interviewed 73 former hidden children, and with questionnaires completed by another 321 attendants, she began her research into the emotional and psychological trauma of hidden children, widening her scope to include the points of view of the children, their biological parents, their non-Jewish foster parents, and their non-Jewish foster siblings.
In the 1990s Evers-Emden published four books in Dutch
based on her research. Geleende Kinderen (Borrowed Children) (1994) focused on the foster parents who hid the children. Ondergedoken Geweest, Een Afgesloten Verleden? (Hidden During the War: A Closed-Off Past?) (1995) examined the written responses of 300 hidden children to a questionnaire. Geschonden Bestaan (Shattered Existence) (1996) interviewed the parents who sent their children into hiding. Je ouders delen (Sharing Your Parents) (1999) focused on the foster siblings of the hidden children. These books were later translated into Hebrew
.
In 1991 she was decorated by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands
as an officer of the Order of Orange-Nassau
.
Her son, Raphael Evers
, is the Rabbi of Rotterdam
.
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
Jewish
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
teacher and child psychologist who extensively researched the phenomenon of "hidden children" during World War II and wrote four books on the subject in the 1990s. Her interest in the topic grew out of her own experiences during World War II, when she was forced to go into hiding from the Nazis
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
and was subsequently arrested and deported to Auschwitz
Auschwitz concentration camp
Concentration camp Auschwitz was a network of Nazi concentration and extermination camps built and operated by the Third Reich in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during World War II...
on the last transport leaving the Westerbork concentration camp on 3 September 1944. Together with her on the train were Anne Frank
Anne Frank
Annelies Marie "Anne" Frank is one of the most renowned and most discussed Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Acknowledged for the quality of her writing, her diary has become one of the world's most widely read books, and has been the basis for several plays and films.Born in the city of Frankfurt...
and her family, whom she had known in Amsterdam. She was liberated on 8 May 1945.
In the 1980s, Evers-Emden earned a doctorate in developmental psychology
Developmental psychology
Developmental psychology, also known as human development, is the scientific study of systematic psychological changes, emotional changes, and perception changes that occur in human beings over the course of their life span. Originally concerned with infants and children, the field has expanded to...
and began interviewing and writing about the phenomenon of "hidden children" from the points of view of the children, their biological parents, their non-Jewish
Gentile
The term Gentile refers to non-Israelite peoples or nations in English translations of the Bible....
foster parents, and their non-Jewish foster siblings. She was also interviewed for several television documentaries on her remembrances of Anne Frank and her family before they went into hiding and after they were sent to Auschwitz.
Early life
She was born Bloeme Emden in Amsterdam to Emanuel Emden, a diamond cutter and a socialistSocialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
, and Rosa Emden-DeVries, a seamstress. Her younger sister, Via Roosje, was born 29 May 1932.
In 1941 Bloeme attended the Jewish lyceum
Lyceum
The lyceum is a category of educational institution defined within the education system of many countries, mainly in Europe. The definition varies between countries; usually it is a type of secondary school.-History:...
, where she befriended Anne Frank and her sister, Margot
Margot Frank
Margot Betti Frank was the older sister of Anne Frank, whose deportation order from the Gestapo hastened the Frank family into hiding, and who subsequently perished in Bergen-Belsen...
. Bloeme was in the same grade as Margot, but in a different class. In July 1942 Bloeme received a deportation order from the local government office. Her father went to the Central Room for Jewish Resettlement and found a sympathetic German who stamped the order "released." She returned to the high school in September, but her class kept shrinking from deportations throughout the year, to the point that only three students were left at the end of the year. By the time oral examinations were administered three weeks later, Bloeme was the only student in her class.
On the first day of the oral examinations in May 1943, Bloeme's non-Jewish boyfriend warned her that the Germans were looking for her. She asked the school board to administer all 12 of her examinations at once, and she received her high school diploma
High school diploma
A high school diploma is a diploma awarded for the completion of high school. In the United States and Canada, it is considered the minimum education required for government jobs and higher education. An equivalent is the GED.-Past diploma styles:...
that same day. When the Germans arrived, they took her to an assembly point for Amsterdam Jews, but she managed to enter the building without being registered. A few days later, she sneaked out with a group of younger teens. At first she hid in the home of Christian friends of her parents who worked in the Dutch underground
Dutch resistance
Dutch resistance to the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands during World War II can be mainly characterized by its prominent non-violence, summitting in over 300,000 people in hiding in the autumn of 1944, tended to by some 60,000 to 200,000 illegal landlords and caretakers and tolerated knowingly...
, but they were afraid that if they were arrested, Bloeme would be, too. She spent the next year hiding in 15 to 16 different places, including an Amsterdam old-age home and a job as a maid for a widow and her son in Rotterdam
Rotterdam
Rotterdam is the second-largest city in the Netherlands and one of the largest ports in the world. Starting as a dam on the Rotte river, Rotterdam has grown into a major international commercial centre...
. When she returned to the people who worked in the underground, she was arrested and sent to Westerbork.
Deportation and incarceration
Bloeme was deported to Auschwitz on the last train leaving Westerbork on 3 September 1944. On the same train were the Frank family and the other four occupants of the "secret annex" who had been discovered in hiding on 4 August. Bloeme saw Anne, Margot and their mother regularly in Auschwitz, although she was part of a separate group of eight women who stayed together, encouraging and helping one another. In October 1944, Bloeme and her group were selected for transfer to the Liebau labor campArbeitslager
Arbeitslager is a German language word which means labor camp.The German government under Nazism used forced labor extensively, starting in the 1930s but most especially during World War II....
in Upper Silesia
Upper Silesia
Upper Silesia is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia. Since the 9th century, Upper Silesia has been part of Greater Moravia, the Duchy of Bohemia, the Piast Kingdom of Poland, again of the Lands of the Bohemian Crown and the Holy Roman Empire, as well as of...
. For the filming of the 1995 BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
documentary Anne Frank Remembered, Bloeme recalled that Anne, Margot, and their mother, Edith
Edith Frank-Holländer
Edith Frank was the mother of Holocaust diarist Anne Frank.-Early life:Edith was the youngest of four children, having been born into a German-Jewish family in Aachen, Germany...
, also planned to join the transport, but Anne was prohibited from joining because she had developed scabies
Scabies
Scabies , known colloquially as the seven-year itch, is a contagious skin infection that occurs among humans and other animals. It is caused by a tiny and usually not directly visible parasite, the mite Sarcoptes scabiei, which burrows under the host's skin, causing intense allergic itching...
. Her mother and sister opted to stay with her, and Bloeme went on without them. Bloeme was also interviewed for her remembrances of the Frank women in Auschwitz in the 1988 television documentary The Last Seven Months of Anne Frank
Laatste Zeven Maanden van Anne Frank (TV documentary)
Laaste Zeven Maanden van Anne Frank is a 1988 Dutch television documentary directed by Willy Lindwer about the last seven months of diarist Anne Frank...
by Dutch filmmaker Willy Lindwer
Willy Lindwer
Wolf "Willy" Lindwer is a Dutch documentary filmmaker.-Biography:Willy Lindwer was born in Amsterdam, Netherlands, where he studied at the Netherlands Film and Television Academy. When Lindwer finished his study, he worked for several Dutch Public TV stations...
.
Bloeme was liberated by the Soviets at Liebau on 8 May 1945. She and a small group of friends began walking back to Holland on foot, arriving six weeks later. She discovered that her parents and sister had been deported to the Sobibor extermination camp
Sobibór extermination camp
Sobibor was a Nazi German extermination camp located on the outskirts of the town of Sobibór, Lublin Voivodeship of occupied Poland as part of Operation Reinhard; the official German name was SS-Sonderkommando Sobibor...
, where they all perished.
Post-war research
After the war, she married Hans Evers and raised a "relatively large family" in Amsterdam. However, she testified, she was unable to talk about her war experiences with her family. She began studying psychologyPsychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
part-time and became a lecturer in psychology at the University of Amsterdam in 1973. She earned her doctorate in the late 1980s.
In the 1980s she began holding group therapy
Group psychotherapy
Group psychotherapy or group therapy is a form of psychotherapy in which one or more therapists treat a small group of clients together as a group...
sessions for former hidden children, addressing "our grief, our anger, our aggression and our mourning". At the Hidden Child Conference held in Amsterdam in 1992, she interviewed 73 former hidden children, and with questionnaires completed by another 321 attendants, she began her research into the emotional and psychological trauma of hidden children, widening her scope to include the points of view of the children, their biological parents, their non-Jewish foster parents, and their non-Jewish foster siblings.
In the 1990s Evers-Emden published four books in Dutch
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
based on her research. Geleende Kinderen (Borrowed Children) (1994) focused on the foster parents who hid the children. Ondergedoken Geweest, Een Afgesloten Verleden? (Hidden During the War: A Closed-Off Past?) (1995) examined the written responses of 300 hidden children to a questionnaire. Geschonden Bestaan (Shattered Existence) (1996) interviewed the parents who sent their children into hiding. Je ouders delen (Sharing Your Parents) (1999) focused on the foster siblings of the hidden children. These books were later translated into Hebrew
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
.
In 1991 she was decorated by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands
Beatrix of the Netherlands
Beatrix is the Queen regnant of the Kingdom of the Netherlands comprising the Netherlands, Curaçao, Sint Maarten, and Aruba. She is the first daughter of Queen Juliana of the Netherlands and Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld. She studied law at Leiden University...
as an officer of the Order of Orange-Nassau
Order of Orange-Nassau
The Order of Orange-Nassau is a military and civil order of the Netherlands which was created on 4 April 1892 by the Queen regent Emma of the Netherlands, acting on behalf of her under-age daughter Queen Wilhelmina. The Order is a chivalry order open to "everyone who have earned special merits for...
.
Her son, Raphael Evers
Raphael Evers
Raphael Evers is the Rabbi of Rotterdam and an authoritative Jewish spokesman in the Netherlands.-Family:Evers grew up in Amsterdam-West. His father was Hans Evers. His mother, Bloeme Evers-Emden , is a Dutch Jew who was deported from Westerbork to Auschwitz in September 1944 on the same train as...
, is the Rabbi of Rotterdam
Rotterdam
Rotterdam is the second-largest city in the Netherlands and one of the largest ports in the world. Starting as a dam on the Rotte river, Rotterdam has grown into a major international commercial centre...
.