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Charly Salomon Zwarenstein 1912 - 1942 Edit

Born 15.2.1912 in Nijmegen
Died 31.10.1942 in Mauthausen

Biography

Charly Salomon Zwarenstein was the eldest son of Salomon Zwarenstein and Helena Zwarenstein-Rubens. Charly had a brother, Jacob Cato Zwarenstein, born in Nijmegen on 13 September, 1919. Jacob was a musician. Charly married Bertha Jacoba Jansen on 20 March 1940 in Arnhem. They settled back in Nijmegen on 2 January 1941. Their daughter Elizabeth was born in Nijmegen. The marriage did not last and the couple divorced on 15 July 1941. Charly Zwarenstein remarried on 3 June 1942 to Henriette van Gelder. According to the War Graves Foundation, he was a pharmacist. Other sources also mention house servant, groundworker and traveling salesmen. It looks like he changed his profession a few times. His wife was an office clerk. Charly and Henriette had a housekeeper, Lina Cohn, who lived with them. They lived at 34 Pontanusstraat in Nijmegen. On 13 July 1942 they moved to 13 Sarphatistraat in Amsterdam. In the population register of Amsterdam, the profession of Charly Zwarenstein is listed as a house servant. It is not known why and when he was deported to Mauthausen. According to the records of the Arolsen Archives, he died of pneumonia in Mauthausen on 31 October 1942, but it is possible that his illness has only been mentioned as an explanation for his death. His parents, his brother and his wife did not survive the war either. His father and mother were gassed on the same day, 21 September 1942, in Auschwitz, resp. 64 and 65 years old, his wife Henriette on 25 December 1942, also in Auschwitz, Charly's brother Jacob Cato on 2 July 1943 in Sobibor. Charly Salomon Zwarenstein was a cousin of Jakob Gijs Rubens, who was shot in Mauthausen on August 7, 1941. Charly’s mother Helena Rubens was a sister of Marcus Rubens, the father of Jakob Gijs. Marcus Rubens had five sisters, none of whom survived the war. Charly Zwarenstein's housekeeper did not survive the war either. Lina Cohn was murdered on 27 November 1942 in Auschwitz.

Ank Engel

 

 

Ank Engel b. 26 december 1950 in Amsterdam.

Studies: History at the Free University in Amsterdam 1969-1975

Profession: historian, teacher; History, Social Sciences and Dutch as a second language. 1975-2015.

Publications: 2004. ‘Brothers and Sisters. Hundred Years Mixed Freemasonry’. 100th anniversary of the Dutch federation of Le Droit Humain.

2019 ‘Where my bread is, is my homeland. Dutch labourers in the Ruhrvalley from 1900 to 1940’. 

She is now working on a book about traveling between 1900 and 2020 and the memories of the Second Worldwar that the postwar-generations have come across.

 

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