Corrie Hermann |
28-02-2014 |
Every time I make ginger snaps I still think about the de Pool family. My grandmother got the recipe from the mother of Chelly de Pool. Chelly was my mother’s bosom friend right from schooldays. The girls were the same age, both born in 1907. They went to high school together, and Chelly even joined my grandparents’ big family during the vacation.
Unfortunately, my mother died shortly after my birth in an accident, but I remember ‘Aunt Chelly’ as a loving and warm woman.
In 1943 her life also came to an untimely end. It was no accident, however, but a terrible destruction. Adopting her name will keep her alive.
It was only after the war that we received news that my father was part of a transport of ‘Work Jews’ sent from Paris, via Auschwitz, to Lithuania. No trace of him was ever discovered, but his name features on the Mémorial de la Shoah in Paris.
His brother from Budapest didn’t return either. I cannot find his name anywhere, but I think of him.
Corrie Hermann, Castricum
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