I still believe that’s true and it’s what I strive to accomplish with my photography. With a snapshot, you’re just documenting someone.Ī portrait reveals character, interest and art. We’re always talking about photography as an art and I really do think that’s important. Many photographers, myself included, tend to dismiss snapshots. The photograph tells me everything I need to know that the connection is real. On the other hand, I don’t feel that I have to prove it in writing now. As I mentioned, I’m having a hard time establishing the link to Michael Beem, which would seem necessary to establish a line down to the Dutch Beem family. I may not be able to prove the link in our families. It makes me wonder if there was a split before part of the family moved to America, or if the difference came from other issues. For one thing, I’ve never heard any mention of our family being Jewish. It also raises some questions for my own history. I’m in a very different line of the family, but the images make me feel close to people who were long past before I was ever born. Our family photographs, even snapshots, may have impact on someone else in the future. Yes, our common family name tells me that there’s likely a connection, but actually seeing someone with those family features drives the story home for me. I wouldn’t have this connection had it not been for the photographs. It’s no different than looking in the mirror and seeing parts of my father in the reflection. The book my Aunt Dorothy sent is full of family photos and it’s not hard to pick out the folks with a Beem family gene compared to their other loved ones in the images. I look at these two children and I instantly see family features. The Photo Says What Words Can Never Tell You The part that drives this home is the photograph. Had it just been a story with the name “Beem”, I would’ve been intrigued. The difference is that I’ve always read them before as an outsider, looking in at someone else’s story.įor the first time, I’ve come across a Holocaust story that very likely has a connection to my own family. I’ve always had an interest in history and have read numerous reports just like this one. Their story, like so many others during the war, is tragic and heartbreaking. The Death of Abraham and Eva BeemĪbraham and Eva Beem were murdered in Auschwitz on 6 March, 1944. They claimed they weren’t Jewish, so the police forced young Abraham Beem to undress and his penis gave him away. One night, police came to arrest the children and their foster parents. The Germans paid rewards to people who turned in Jews. It worked for a couple of years until they were betrayed. Their parents, Hartog & Rosetta Beem went into hiding and sent their children to Christian friends to live under assumed names. Abraham, along with his older sister Eva, was deported to the Auschwitz death camp in Poland, where both were murdered upon arrival.Ībraham was one of 1.5 million Jewish children murdered by the Germans and their collaborators during the Holocaust.Abraham and Eva Beem lived in The Netherlands, children of parents who were active in the Jewish community. Nine year-old Abraham was denounced as a Jew in February 1944. They found collaborators willing to turn them in for payment. The Nazis, realizing that many Jewish children had been sent into hiding, intensified their search. He was known as Jan de Witt, and he attended school along with the other village children. Abraham was given a new name and identity. Abraham and his older sister were sent to the village of Ermelo, and a Christian family, willing to risk death to save them, was found. They felt that the children would be safer posing as non-Jews in a rural village. They were first taken to transit camps, and from there to death camps in Poland, where they were murdered.Ībraham's parents decided that the family would go into hiding. Beginning in mid-July 1942, the Germans began rounding up Holland's Jewish citizens. Many Jews were forced into restricted ghetto areas in July 1941, and after May 1942, all Jews had to wear the yellow star. But the Germans reacted brutally, and were able to break up most organized resistance. At first, the Dutch population resisted the anti-Jewish measures enacted by the Germans. The rich became poor and the middle class was reduced to subsistence levels. Beginning in October 1940, they liquidated Jewish businesses and banned Jews from most professions. When the Germans invaded, they immediately embarked upon steps to separate the Jews from the rest of the population. The Jews of the Netherlands were well-integrated into the general population and they were active in all aspects of the country's social, cultural and economic life. Abraham's father was a high school teacher in the small city of Leeuwarden, in northern Holland. Abraham, the son of Hartog and Rosette Beem, was a five year-old schoolboy when the Germans invaded Holland in May 1940.
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