Maisie and I researched everything we could and tracked down a best friend of her 'twin'.
I took part in Yad Vashem UK’s Twinning project. The aim is to research a young Holocaust victim.
I focused on Mary de Jongh a girl from Amsterdam. May was born in August 1933 to Gerson and Sippora. She had an older sister Sara.
In 1933 Hitler had come to power in Germany. Antisemitism was encouraged through laws and propaganda.
In 1938 Mary moved to the Boterdiepstraat in Amsterdam, she was 5 years old. Life changed for Mary on 10 May, 1940 when Germany invaded the Netherlands.
I tracked down Renate Beek, Mary’s best friend. I went to Amsterdam to meet her, where she us around her and Mary’s neighbourhood.
The hardest part of my journey was the former transit camp Westerbork. Mary and her mother were taken out of their home in March 1943. They arrived in Westerbork on March 13 and sent to Sobibor on April 13. Renate never saw Mary again.
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