Chapter 9

FAMILY DE JONG BARELY ESCAPES DEATH

During the Second World War, there were secret discussions going on between the Germans and the English, with Spain and Switzerland as intermediaries. It was about a unique exchange of people: Jewish people from places all over Europe who wanted to go to Palestine and German "Tempeliers" who were stuck in Palestine. When the Germans were busy killing off the Jews, the British had opened their door to Palestine only a little bit. Yet in 1944 the third exchange took place. Of course Hitler and Churchill did not know that this was going on or they would have stopped it immediately. Who were these "Tempeliers"? They were religious Germans who did not have a connection with any particular church, but were searching for a sober and clean life. The congregation was formed in 1861. Seven years later the members left for Palestine to build a so called temple for their "God". It happened to be that they became fervent members of the Nazi party.

- During the Second World War, Family De Jong could miraculously emigrate to Palestine. Jacob (upper left), Bertha, upper right), Simon de Jong (middle), his wife Sophie van Gelder, Philip (bottom left), Alida, (bottom right). In addition to their original Dutch names Hebrew names were accepted, Ya'acov, Batya, Uri and Ada. These photos were taken at the end of the forties.

In 1941, 661 Germans who had been kept in jail in Palestine were deported to Australia. In December 1941, 46 Jewish Zionists from Europe were exchanged for 67 Germans, which took place in Turkey. On November 12, 1942, 137 Zionist Jews were exchanged for 301 Germans and 4 Italians. Himmler supported this exchange of people as he wanted to bring his people home. The camp Bergen Belsen was built specially to facilitate this exchange of people. Capable diplomats who were not under the Nazi influence took part in the discussions. The last exchange took place on July 6, 1944, when 281 Jews were exchanged for 114 Germans. The Jewish Agency approved of the procedure, which they themselves had already proposed in 1939. A terrible problem for the Germans was that millions of Polish Jews had already been murdered in the meantime. Among those exchanged in 1944 was the family De Jong, consisting of Sophie van Gelder (F01.E02.), a daughter of Jacob Lijzer from Aalten, her husband, the diamond polisher Simon de Jong, and their four children, Jacob, Bertha, Philip and Alida. The family replaced some people who had been on the list, but had probably already been murdered. They were hit by a miracle and crawled through the needle hole of the Holocaust. Son Jacob (G51.F01.) says that he was ill and the camp physician would not let him go,

he said that he would not make it. His parents had to make a terrible decision, to go without him and never to see him again, or stay with him, and all perish. He went with them and they all survived. The author Clara Asscher-Pinkhof, from Amsterdam, wife of Chief Rabbi Abraham Asscher ( see before) had also been able to join this group and survived. She writes about the experience: "The lever rose to let us out. My mother and I, next to each other, held hands. The 281 people who left were glad and sad at the same time. There was absolute silence. There was some space between us, and the row in front of us. 'Hurry,' somebody shouted. A voice next to us answered calmly, 'There are people who cannot go any faster!' I looked to the side and saw that it had been an SS man who was accompanying us to the train station, who had said these words. Nobody in the camp had ever uttered these words; we were not asked if we 'could'. A new day had started. When we arrived at the train station, the train was not there yet. The luggage and other prisoners were there. The two groups met, like life and death. Deadly ill people who were allowed to go to Palestine lay on the ground. The others stood, eating carefully from the bread they had received, or tearing at this long unknown piece of treasure. Then the train arrived, first class, second class, space for luggage. The passengers got in and the train left." Clara remembers to have looked at the passing landscape. "Nobody said a word, it could break the trance. Just looking at each other through a veil of tears of which you thought you had none left. Far away, a shadow of understanding, an idea that came closer and closer: luck, freedom. It was a drop of joy in a glass of misery." Jacob de Jong made it, as did the others. Thanks to his mother, Jacob escaped. After the war he continued living in Israel. He changed his name to Ya'acov Yannay. But still his life was insecure. He became a diplomat. Then he was the first Israeli diplomat whom the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) tried to kill. In 1973 he was confronted with his past when he was at a reception at the City Hall in Berlin. He was introduced to Waldemar Fast. This man had been involved with the third people exchange in Ankara. Again, in 1986, Yannai received a voter's paper "for absent voters". It listed Westerbork as his last known address. A fourth exchange never took place. Neutral Turkey became an ally of Great Britain. As a result the Tempeliers stayed in Australia and the Jews in Bergen Belzen, where they were killed.
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- Clara Asscher-Pinkhof (Het Joodse Weekblad, October 3, 1941/12 Tisjrie 5703).