Bullenhuser Damm - Victims

Victims

• Marek James, a boy aged 6, from Radom, Poland; prisoner no. B 1159.
• H. Wassermann, a girl aged 8, from Poland.
• Roman Witonski, a boy aged 6, and his sister; prisoner number A-15160.
• Eleonora Witonska, a girl aged 5, from Radom, Poland; prisoner number A-15159. (Roman and Eleanora were deported to Auschwitz along with their mother, Rucza Witonska (prisoner number A-15158) from the ghetto in Radom, Poland. Their father, Seweryn Witonski, a pediatrician from Radom, was gunned down at an execution in the Szydlowiec cemetery. Ruzca worked in the laboratory of Josef Mengele. In November 1944, the children were separated from their mother when she was sent to the concentration camp in Gebhardsdorf in Lower Silesia. Roman and Eleonora were sent to the "Kinderheim" (orphanage) at Auschwitz. Rucza survived the war and tried to find her children. She later remarried. Rosa Grumelin has visited the memorial)
• Roman Zeller, a boy aged 12, from Poland.
• Riwka Herszberg, a girl aged 7, from Zdunska Wola, Poland. (Her parents were Mania and Moishe Herszberg. They were kept in the family barracks for a period of time. Her mother survived the war.)
• Mania Altmann, a girl aged 5, from Radom, Poland.
• Surcis Goldinger, a girl aged 11, from Poland.
• Lelka Birnbaum, a girl aged 12, from Poland.
• Ruchla Zylberberg, a girl aged 8, from Zawichost, Poland. (Ruchla's sister, Esther, and her mother, Fajga (née Rosenblum), were gassed upon arrival in Auschwitz. Her father, Nison Zylberberg, survived the war in the Soviet Union, with his brother, Henry, and his sister, Felicja; he then emigrated to the United States. He died in Colorado on September 29, 2002 at the age of 86. He visited the memorial.)
• Eduard Reichenbaum, a boy aged 10, from Katowice, Poland. (His brother Itzhak survived the war and emigrated to Haifa, Israel.)
• Blumel Mekler, a girl aged 11, from Sandomierz, Poland. (Her sister, Shifra, survived the war because, as she recalled, her mother told her to "run! Shifra! run!" as the round-up began. She was 8 at this time, and Blumel was 5. She was kept hidden by a Polish family. She emigrated to Tel Aviv, Israel and married. She has visited the memorial.)
• Eduard (Edo) Hornemann, a boy aged 12. (Born on January 1, 1933), he lived with his mother, Elisabeth, his father, Philip, and his brother, Alexander, at 29 Staringstraat in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. His parents worked at the Philips factory. Philip died on February 21, 1945 at Sachsenhausen, where he arrived after a stop at Dachau with the "death march". Elisabeth died of typhus in Auschwitz in October 1944.
• Alexander Hornemann, a boy aged 9. (b. May 31, 1936.)
• Georges André Kohn, a boy aged 12, from Paris, France. (b. April 23, 1932.)
• Jacqueline Morgenstern, a girl aged 12, from Paris. (b. May 26, 1932. A cousin, Henry Morgenstern, survived the war and has visited the memorial.)
• Sergio de Simone, a boy aged 7, from Naples, Italy; prisoner no. 179694. (b. November 29, 1937. Son of Italian Eduardo de Simone and his Yugoslav Jewish wife Gisella (née Perlow). Arrested March 21, 1944 in Fiume. First sent to San Sabba then on March 29, 1944 to Auschwitz. His mother survived the war and has visited the memorial.)
• Marek Steinbaum, a boy aged 10, from Radom, Poland. (His sister, Lola, survived the war and emigrated to the USA, living in San Francisco; she has visited the memorial.)
• W. Junglieb, a boy aged 12, from Yugoslavia.
• Lea Klygermann, a girl aged 12, from Poland; prisoner no. A 16959.

The children were in the care of four male prisoners, two French professors and two Dutch prisoners, all of whom had been imprisoned because of their anti-German activities.

The two French professors were:

• Professor René Quenouille (b. December 6, 1887 in Lyon). He was a physician and radiologist at a hospital in Villeneuve-Saint-Georges, near Paris and a member of the French Resistance. He was arrested by the Gestapo, together with his wife, Yvonne, on March 3, 1943. Yvonne was released after three and a half months, but he was sentenced to death, although the sentence was later commuted to imprisonment.
• Professor Gabriel Florence (b. June 12, 1884). He was a biologist who taught at the University of Lyon. He fought in World War I and joined the French Resistance during World War II. He was arrested by the Gestapo on March 4, 1944.

The two Dutch prisoners were:

• Anton Holzel (b. May 7, 1909), who came from Deventer. He was a driver and a member of the Dutch Communist Party, who joined the Resistance after the German invasion. He became a waiter at the Novotel Den Haag, a hotel in The Hague, to facilitate the transfer of messages. He was arrested on September 11, 1941 and sent to Buchenwald. He was later transferred to Neuengamme.
• Dirk Deutekom (b. December 12, 1895), who was a typographer. A member of the Dutch Resistance, he tried to hinder the deportation of Dutch Jews from the Netherlands. He was arrested in July, 1941 and sent to Buchenwald, where he was given a job in the infirmary, owing to his fluency in German. On June 6, 1944 he was transferred to the concentration camp at Neuengamme.