Family picture – taken at the wedding day of Johanna Frederika Suzanna ZION and Ephraim Izaak Levie ROSENBAUM on 19th August 1940 in the garden of the Zion family in Eibergen. (The underlined names are people who survived the Sjoa).

Foreground: from left to right: Frederika Hoogstraal (cousin of the bride), Henry Donald (Hans) Mogendorff (cousin of the bride).
First row: from left to right: Lea Rosenbaum (aunt of the groom), Izak Rosenbaum (father of the groom), Bertha Rosenbaum-Levie (mother of the groom), Ephraim Izaak Levie (EIL) Rosenbaum, (groom, owner of the ex-libris), Johanna Frederika Suzanna (Jo) Zion (bride), Frieda Zion (young girl sitting on the arm, youngest sister of the bride), Wilhelmina Esther (Mien) Zion (sister of the bride), Betje Zion-Gans (mother of the bride), her husband Migels Zion, who also was named Manuel Zion passed away in 1937, Toni Zion-Buschoff (aunt of the bride), Izak Zion (uncle of the bride) (= parents of aunt Erna de Jong Zion).
Standing first row: from left to right: Louis Blom (uncle of the bride from Uithoorn), Leo Menco (friend Zion family, living in Eibergen), Elise Zion-Jakubovsky (aunt of the bride), Amalia Blom-Gans (aunt of the bride, Uithoorn), Hona Zion (uncle of the bride), Heiman (Hein) Mogendorff (uncle of the bride), Suze de Zoete-Gans (aunt of the bride), Esther Cohen-Zion (aunt of the bride) and her husband Zadok Cohen, Brunette (Netje) van der Sluis-Rosenbaum (aunt groom, Zwolle), Hartog van der Sluis (Netje's huband), Rieka Levie-Boekbinder (EIL's aunt), Julius Jacob (Juul) Zion (eldest brother bride), Dr. Betty Levie (cousin EIL), Dr. Roos Weinbergen (friend of the Rosenbaums).
Standing last row: from left to right: Frederika Blom (cousin bride), Salomon Isaac (Sallie) Zion (brother bride), Erna de Jong-Zion (cousin bride), and her huband Bernard de Jong, Debora Mogendorff-Gans (aunt bride), Zadok Joseph (Dok) Zion, (brother bride), Alida Blom (cousin bride), Arnold de Zoete (cousin bride). 

An ex-libris is a personal book-plate.  Years ago, people who were well off enough to have libraries would have their own ex-libris specially designed to show ownership of their books.  

This particular ex-libris with the name of its owner, EIL in capital letters, takes us back to the middle of the 19th century.  This is where a Dutch Jewish family, the Rosenbaums, lived in the remote village of Peize in the Province of Drenthe.   At that time it was quite common for Jews to be in cattle-trading.  There were huge cattle markets in Groningen, in Hoogeveen and in the smaller communities of Assen and Beilen where Jewish cattle dealers were very successful.  Some even became landowners, extraordinary for Jews at that time, the Rosenbaums among them.  Records show that in 1923 Ephraim Izaäk Levie and his wife donated a white silk ornamental curtain (פרוכת) to the Leek Synagogue for the high holidays (ימים נוראים).  It covered the front of the Holy Ark with a gold crown and fringe. 

When the old man died in 1935 on Lag Ba’omer, he was honored for his Torah learning, remarkable since there were so few Jews in the area when he was growing up. His descendents continued living in Peize and a grandson was named after him, Ephraim Izaäk Levie, known to everyone as ‘Eil’ after the initial letters of his names. 

In 1928 when Eil was 15 the family moved to Groningen and he joined the Jewish Youth Federation. Like many in his generation, he wanted to expand his horizons.   He was to become a pharmacist and this we see in his ex-libris (shown here) which is illustrated with a tree of roses (for Rosenbaum), a Magen David,  the symbol of a pharmacist and his name in capital letters.

Towards the end of the 19th century, the other popular Jewish profession was the textile business. Jo (Johanna Frederika Suzanna), who was to become Eil’s wife, was a member of the Zion family.  Her grandfather, originally Polish, started selling textiles in Eibergen in 1868; the business grew and he opened a very successful store which passed down through the generations.

In August 1940, Jo Zion married the pharmacist Ephraim ‘Eil’ Rosenbaum. The couple settled in the heart of Amsterdam where they lived at 13 Houtmarkt  (Jonas Daniel Meijerplein).  Although Holland had capitulated to the Nazis earlier that year, the inevitable dreadful outcome for the Jews took time to unfold.  Eil soon opened the Rosenbaum Pharmacy in a prestigious spot on the corner of Nieuwe Heerengracht-Amstel.  Ephraim and Jo Rosenbaum had two children, the second of whom arrived at the beginning of the year 1943. The net however was closing in.  Jo’s mother, by now a widow, had already been transported.  Jo’s five brothers and sisters were in hiding.  Their friend and neighbor in Groenlosche Straat, Jan Willem Hageman, who was the Secretary of the Eibergen municipality, sent his son-in-law to Amsterdam to beg Eil and Jo to go into hiding too.  However medicine was in short supply and the Jewish Council (the Judenrat) feared for the remaining Jews.  Eil is remembered for saying; “As long as there are Jews in Amsterdam, I have to stay.”  Even when a whole delegation from Eibergen came, he remained in his post. In the end only Jo went into hiding with her newborn baby son in Neede in the east of Holland. But within days of arriving they were betrayed and deported. Eil himself  was deported a few days later.

The only surviving member of the family was their small daughter, Betty, aged two. Jan Willem and Bertha Hageman, the couple from Eibergen who were so concerned about the Rosenbaum’s fate, took the child in and pretended she was a cousin. At the muncipality where Hageman worked, he prepared a false identity card for her (shown here).  Betty was to be known as Elisabeth Cornelia Andriessen, daughter of Hendrica Christina Andriessen-Hageman, born in Gendt, Belgium.  Although there are towns with similar spellings, there is no such place as Gendt.  It is likely that Hageman wanted it to be more difficult to trace the child’s birth, as it would not appear in either place.

Jan Willem Hageman was shot by the Germans on  June 6, 1944 (D-Day) but the identity of the child was never suspected. Betty Rosenbaum survived in that house in Groenlosche Street in Eibergen. After the war she moved to the original home of her grandparents in the same road and grew up in the family of her uncle, Juul Zion. 

The name Groenlosche Street was eventually changed to Hageman Straat to honor the courageous Dutch family and in  2002 the Hagemans were posthumously recognised by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations.

In 1964, Betty Kazin Rosenbaum made aliya. Today she is a valued member of the ESRA Caesarea/Zichron Yaakov branch. She has three sons and a daughter, and is the proud grandmother of  four boys, the youngest of whom, twins, were born in April in Gedera. 

Research by Chaya Braz. 

bettykazin@gmail.com

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The Duldig family
2011-07-03
As relatives of Betty (Rosenbaum) living in Australia we thank her for sharing this moving story of the EX LIBRIS of her father. Brave people inspire us all.

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