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This post honours the memory of a Holocaust victim.
6 December 1928 | Betje Polak was born in Rotterdam
A Dutch Jewish girl, the younger child of Elsje and Salomon Polak. She had an older brother, Hartog. They lived at Green Hilledijk 298 a, Rotterdam – a simple home in a bustling port city, where Betje grew up with the joys of childhood: school, friends, family traditions.
Betje was eleven years old when the Nazis invaded the Netherlands in May 1940. On 29 July 1942, the family received a “call-up notice” for Westerbork transit camp. They went into hiding instead. Tragically, they were arrested on 2 October 1942 and deported to Westerbork, then to Auschwitz.
Betje was murdered in the gas chambers on 19 October 1942. She was thirteen years old. Her parents died by her side; her brother Hartog perished two months later from exhaustion.
No grave. No farewell. Only a name and a story that must never be forgotten.
Betje Polak was one of the approximately 107,000 Dutch Jews deported during the Holocaust. Of those, only about 5,200 returned.
We remember Betje Polak today not to dwell in sorrow, but to restore her name and the childhood that was stolen; to honour the 102,000 Dutch Jews who were murdered; and to ensure that every young girl who never grew up – every life ended at 13 – remains a call to build a world free from hatred.
She was 13 when they took her. We give her back her name, forever.
Official & reputable sources
Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum – Deportation lists from Westerbork, October 1942
Yad Vashem Central Database of Shoah Victims’ Names – entry for Betje Polak
NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies – Dutch Jewish deportations records
Joods Monument (Netherlands) – Polak family records