Hetty E. Verolme

Hetty Esther Verolme (* 1930 in Antwerp , Belgium ) is a survivor of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and an author living in Australia .

Life

Hetty Esther is the daughter of Maurice Mozes Werkendam and Hendrika van Kamerik. The family moved to Amsterdam a year after she was born . At the end of 1943, Hetty, her two younger brothers Max and Jackie and their parents were arrested there, interned in the Westerbork transit camp and later deported to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. In December 1944, the parents of 40 children were deported to an unknown destination. The group of children between the ages of 10 months and 13 years remained alone and were sent to barrack 211, the so-called children's house . Hetty was initially separated from the group, but some time later received permission from SS commandant Josef Kramer to move into the children's home.

Hetty and the older children looked after the group, led and supported by Luba Tryszynska, a Polish Jew called Sister Luba and known as the angel of Bergen-Belsen - she had lost her husband and her three-year-old son in the Auschwitz concentration camp . The children tried to survive together. Fourteen-year-old Hetty was called the little mother .

Anne Frank was interned two barracks from the children's home .

A few days after the liberation of the camp on April 15, 1945, at the request of her English liberators, Hetty made a short record of her experiences. On April 18, she was interviewed by BBC reporter Patrick Gordon Walker , later British Foreign Secretary. She returned with her two brothers to the Netherlands, where the three siblings met their parents, who had also survived. She marries, her parents and her brothers emigrate to Australia. Hetty stays in the Netherlands with her husband. When he dies, she emigrates to Australia with her daughter in 1954.

In 2000 she published a book about the children's home. She describes in detail the horror of camp life. She dedicated the book to her two grandchildren. In Australia, it won the National Literary Award and the Christina Stead Award from the Fellowship of Australian Writers . The book and an abridged version from 2010 have now been translated into several languages.

Works

• The Children's House of Belsen . Published by Werma Pty. Ltd. Perth , Western Australia 2009, 2013 as Trustee for "The Children For Bergen Trust". ISBN 978-0-9922973-0-5 . First published in 2000 by Freemantle Press, Western Australia.
  • De kinderbarak van Bergen-Belsen. Omniboek, Utrecht 2011, ISBN 978-90-5977-620-3 .
  • We children from Bergen-Belsen. Translation into German by Mirjam Pressler . J. Beltz Verlag, Weinheim / Basel 2005, ISBN 3-407-85785-3 .
  • La maison des enfants . Translation into French by Isabelle Thibaudière, Edition: France Loisirs. Paris 2007, ISBN 2-298-00005-0
• Hetty: A True Story , Fremantle Press 2010, ISBN 978-1-921361-33-3 . (shortened version)
  • De kleine moeder van Bergen-Belsen. Hoe de 14-year-old Hetty het concentratiekamp overleefde , Omniboek, 2014, ISBN 978-94-019-0323-3 .
  • Hetty: Una Historia Real , Almuzara Editorial, Cordoba 2013, ISBN 978-84-15828-31-0 .
  • Hetty: Una Storia Vera , translation into Italian by M. Fessart, Editrice Il Castoro 2012, ISBN 978-88-8033-617-4

Web links

• The children of Bergen Trust
• Hetty.E.Verolme on facebook
• Holocaust survivor on a mission to educate the new generation , a film by ABC News
• Reinhard Osteroth: Open your mouth, Hetty. In Die Zeit , September 2007
• Hans-Dieter Arntz : An important book by Hetty E. Verolme.