Heger-Leeuwarden family
Mathilde (Tilly) Heger-Leeuwarden (1881-1942) and Nathan Heger (1876-1942): A Life Marked by the Holocaust
Mathilde Leeuwarden was was the daughter of my great-great-grandparents: Levi Nathan Leeuwarden (1843-1904) and Rosette Polack (1846-1904). She was a sister of my great-grandmother Gretchen Lehmkuhl-Leeuwarden (1877-1952).
Mathilde (Tilly) Heger-Leeuwarden and Nathan Heger: A Life in the Shadow of Persecution
Mathilde Leeuwarden, commonly known as Tilly, was born on January 2, 1881, in Delmenhorst, a small town near Bremen in northern Germany. She lived through an era that for European Jews was defined by rising antisemitism and culminated in the Holocaust—the systematic genocide of approximately six million Jews by Nazi Germany and its collaborators between 1941 and 1945. Tilly’s story exemplifies the fate of many German Jews: a life of integration shattered by racial laws, expropriation, deportation, and murder. This biography reconstructs her life and that of her husband Nathan Heinrich Heger, drawing from family archives, historical documents, and survivor testimonies, with particular attention to their family background, personal circumstances, and tragic end in the Minsk Ghetto.
Early Life and Family Background
Tilly was the daughter of Levi Nathan Leeuwarden (1843–1904) and Rosette Polack (1846–1900). Levi, born in Winschoten, Netherlands, ran a fashion shop in Delmenhorst after moving there around 1865–1866. He married Rosette, whose family had roots in Oldersum and Thienfelde, Germany. Their civil marriage likely took place in Delmenhorst, reflecting the blend of Jewish tradition and secular integration common at the time. Levi initially resided on a Winschoten citizenship permit, highlighting the family’s transnational ties. Rosette died of tuberculosis in 1900, and Levi in Oldenburg in 1904; both are buried in Delmenhorst’s Jewish cemetery.
The Leeuwardens had nine children, typical of a middle-class Jewish family in Wilhelmine Germany. Tilly’s siblings included:
Nathan Levi (1866–1930), a cattle trader whose descendants largely remained in Germany; Hendel (1868–1870), who died young; Röschen (1870–1935), who married Moritz Levy and ran a hotel on Wangerooge island—her family fled to Israel in the early 1930s, though son Erwin perished in the camps; Lea (Lenchen) (1872–ca. 1940), who married Rabbi Hermann Goldschmidt and emigrated to the United States in 1935; Clara Roth-Leeuwarden (1874–1944), who moved to New York in 1903, married Philip Roth (who likely died in the 1920s), and lived subsequently in New York and Cologne with a son named John Roth—she maintained homes in both cities; Willy (Wolf) (1876–ca. 1952), a decorated World War I veteran who survived Theresienstadt and died in East Germany; Gretchen (1877–1952), who fled to the Netherlands in 1934 and survived as a “qualified half-Jew” (qualifizierte Halbjudin) under Nazi racial laws; Henny (1883–1942), who married Rudolf Willig and died in a Cologne air raid—her children emigrated to Brazil. This family dispersion illustrates the impact of Nazi persecution on German Jewry. The Nuremberg Laws of 1935 defined Jews by ancestry, stripping them of citizenship and rights. Many Leeuwardens emigrated preemptively: Clara to the U.S. in 1903 (with later stays in Cologne), Lea in 1935, Henny’s children to Brazil, Röschen’s to Israel. Others, like Willy, endured camps but survived; Erwin and Tilly did not. Gretchen’s survival in the Netherlands reflects varying Nazi policies: as a stateless refugee married to a non-Jew, she was reclassified, unlike Tilly in Germany. The family’s scattering—across Europe, the Americas, and the Middle East—mirrors the global Jewish diaspora spurred by the Holocaust.
Little is known of Tilly’s early occupation, but family lore suggests she ran a children’s home, possibly in Cologne. She was well-read and poetic, traits noted in family recollections. As a practicing member of Delmenhorst’s Jewish community (Jüdische Gemeinde Delmenhorst), she embodied the assimilated yet observant Judaism common among German Jews. In 1908, at age 27, she gave birth to Julius Leeuwarden (November 5, 1908–January 9, 1981). Julius’s father remains unknown, though speculation points to Nathan Heger as a pre-marital partner. Julius spent summers at Villa Rosa on Wangerooge with cousins like Hans Lehmkuhl, bonds disrupted by the war.
Marriage and Family Life
Tilly married Nathan Heinrich Heger on May 28, 1926, in Delmenhorst. Nathan, born May 21, 1876, in Delmenhorst, was a tailor specializing in fire brigade uniforms. Baptized Evangelical Christian but of partial Jewish descent (a “half-Jew” or Halbjude under Nazi classification), he was reclassified as a “validity Jew” (Geltungsjude) due to his marriage to Tilly, a full Jew (Volljüdin) with four Jewish grandparents. Nathan’s first marriage to Minna Clara Thiele (1878–1925) produced three sons: Henry (Richard Karl Heinrich, 1905–1937), Willy (Friedrich Wilhelm, 1907–?), and Richard (Alfred Richard, 1911–1979). Tilly and Nathan had no children together.
Family life centered in Delmenhorst, where Nathan owned property at Kleine Kirchstrasse 9. He clashed with the municipality over unemployed men urinating against his house near the old labor office, filing police complaints. Photos from 1925–1926 show family gatherings at Villa Rosa, with Tilly, Nathan, Julius, and relatives like Rose Hugenholtz-Lehmkuhl. Henry’s marriage to Mathilde prompted him to sever ties with Nathan, likely due to her Jewish faith amid rising antisemitism. Henry joined the NSDAP, SA, and SS, dying in 1937 after surgery; his funeral honored his Nazi affiliations, though Himmler demoted him for concealing Jewish ancestry. His obituary in the Syke newspaper of January 29, 1937, praised him as a “loyal fighter” of the NSDAP who founded the local group in Syke in 1919.
The 1930s brought escalating persecution. The 1939 census registered Tilly as a Volljüdin. Their home at Kleine Kirchstrasse 9 was expropriated and sold cheaply to Nazi sympathizers. By late 1939, Delmenhorst’s Jewish population had dwindled to 21. Tilly and Nathan, expelled, hid in a miserable attic, surviving on landlord aid. Tilly refused emigration, citing her Iron Cross (likely from wartime service), believing it protective—a common delusion among decorated Jews.
Family letters, such as Heinrich Heger’s (Nathan’s grandson) of February 7, 2013, reveal Nathan’s quarrels with the municipality over urinating workers. Heinrich’s research notes Henry’s break with the family after Mathilde’s arrival and rapid NSDAP membership. Willy emigrated on May 22, 1939, from Bremen to Valparaiso, Chile, aboard the HAPAG ship Roda, as confirmed by passenger lists. Richard, Nathan’s youngest son, wrote a 1953 life story in Osnabrück asylum, describing his early life in Bremen, schooling, and NSDAP involvement, citing Nathan’s Jewish origin as cause for demotion and his own family rift.
The Nazi Era and Persecution
Under the Nuremberg Laws, Tilly and Nathan faced increasing isolation. Jews were barred from professions, property ownership, and public life. Nathan’s business suffered; their assets were confiscated. In April 1940 they were deported to Bremen, registered at Ostertorsteinweg 100, then Scharnhorststraße 121 from September 26, 1941. This “resettlement” (Umsiedlung) was a euphemism for forced relocation preluding deportation.
On November 18, 1941, Tilly (60) and Nathan (65) were among 408 Jews from Hamburg and Bremen deported to Minsk. The Gestapo’s “evacuation order” (Evakuierungsbefehl) required reporting to Bremen’s assembly point, surrendering assets via an eight-page declaration (Vermögenserklärung). They could bring 50 kg luggage, bedding, three days’ food, and 100 Reichsmarks (confiscated). The train departed Bremen at 8:40 a.m., stopped in Hamburg, and traveled via Stargard, Schneidemühl, Warsaw, Bialystok, and Baranowitschi, arriving in Minsk after five days.
The Minsk Ghetto: A Hell on Earth
The Minsk Ghetto, established during the German occupation of Byelorussia (now Belarus), was one of the largest and deadliest concentration points for Jews in the occupied Soviet territories. It served as an instrument of isolation, exploitation, and genocide, aligned with the “Final Solution of the Jewish Question.” Tilly and Nathan arrived in November 1941 and likely perished in July 1942 during a major “Aktion” (mass murder operation). Based on survivor accounts, such as Heinz Rosenberg’s, and documents from the Hamburg deportation transport to Minsk, this section details the horror.
Minsk had a Jewish community since the 15th century. The 1926 census recorded 53,700 Jews (40.8% of the population). Refugee influxes from occupied Poland raised this to about 90,000 by the German invasion on June 22, 1941. The city fell on June 28; executions began immediately. 40,000 men were rounded up; 2,000 Jewish intellectuals were shot. The region fell under Reichskommissariat Ostland, led by Hinrich Lohse, with Wilhelm Kube as Generalkommissar for Weißruthenien (White Ruthenia). Kube, assassinated by partisans in 1943, oversaw the genocide.
The ghetto was established on July 20, 1941, encompassing 34 streets including Perekopskaia, Nemiga, and Respublikanskaia, plus the Jewish cemetery. Barbed wire and watchtowers enclosed it; a curfew ran from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. Each person was allotted 1.5 m² of living space. Thousands lived in ruins without windows or floors. A Judenrat, led by Eliyahu Myshkin, registered the population. Jews wore a yellow star and a white badge with house number. The population swelled to 100,000 with arrivals from nearby towns.
Conditions were inhuman: overcrowding, starvation (300g watery soup daily), typhus epidemics, and forced labor. Official rations fell below survival levels. A labor camp on Shirokaya Street housed Jews and Soviet POWs, later serving as a transit for executions. Reich Jews like Tilly and Nathan arrived from November 1941. To make space, 12,000 local Jews were murdered at Tuchinki on November 7. Reich Jews were placed in a separate “Sonderghetto,” segregated from Russian Jews, marked by a “Sonderghetto” sign. Nightly murders killed 70–80 newcomers. The Sonderghetto was divided by origin: Hamburg, Berlin, Rhineland, Bremen, Vienna.
Genocide escalated through “Aktions” by Einsatzgruppe B under Arthur Nebe, with police units and local collaborators. Between August and November 1941: 5,000 in August, 7,000 in November at Tuchinki. In March 1942 an Aktion killed 5,000, including orphans thrown alive into pits—Kube tossed candy at them. Gas vans (mobile gas chambers) were introduced after Himmler’s August 1941 visit, seeking “more humane” methods. Saurer or Opel trucks killed with exhaust fumes. In May 1942, Maly Trostinec extermination site opened 12 km east of Minsk.
The largest Aktion (July 28–31, 1942) killed 30,000, including many Reich Jews. Ordered by Kube, it involved encircling the ghetto, herding victims to Trostinec pits, shooting, and burning bodies. Tilly and Nathan likely perished here, as noted on their Bremen Stolpersteine: “Ermordet in Minsk.” By August 1942 only 8,794 Jews remained.
Resistance emerged: an underground with 450 members helped 10,000 escape to partisans in the forests, though few survived. In September–October 1943 transports went to Sobibór, where many were gassed. Final liquidation occurred October 21, 1943: the last 2,000 were killed at Maly Trostinec. The Red Army liberated Minsk on July 3, 1944; only about 10 Reich Jews survived.
Nazi statistics record 86,632 Jews murdered by February 1943. Between November 1941 and October 1942, 35,442 Reich Jews arrived; few survived. Of 999 Austrian deportees, only 3 survived. Postwar, collaborators faced Soviet trials; figures like Adolf Rübe (ghetto terrorizer) received life sentences in West Germany. Rosenberg was hanged at Nuremberg; Kube was killed by partisans.
In 2004 Minsk had 1.7 million inhabitants, 1.7% Jewish. Memorial sites like Yad Vashem and Trostinec commemorate the victims. Tilly’s story illustrates the tragedy of assimilated Jews who fled too late. Her Stolperstein in Bremen (Scharnhorststraße 121) marks her last address.
Death and Legacy
Tilly’s fate underscores the Holocaust’s toll on assimilated Jews. Stolpersteine in Bremen at Scharnhorststraße 121 memorialize her and Nathan. Julius emigrated to Argentina in 1936 as Julio, lost contact with cousins, but reconnected with family in 2023 via the Hugenholtz website. No direct descendants from Tilly’s marriage survive, but her story endures through archives like Yad Vashem and family research.
Tilly embodied resilience amid erasure. Her refusal to flee, rooted in misplaced faith in awards, reflects many Jews’ tragic optimism. As historian Saul Friedländer notes, the Holocaust was “an event that ultimately defies historical knowledge and conventional historical narrative.” Tilly’s biography, pieced from fragments, honors that complexity.
Mathilde (Tilly) Heger-Leeuwarden and Nathan Heger: A Life in the Shadow of Persecution
Mathilde Leeuwarden, commonly known as Tilly, was born on January 2, 1881, in Delmenhorst, a small town near Bremen in northern Germany. She lived through an era that for European Jews was defined by rising antisemitism and culminated in the Holocaust—the systematic genocide of approximately six million Jews by Nazi Germany and its collaborators between 1941 and 1945. Tilly’s story exemplifies the fate of many German Jews: a life of integration shattered by racial laws, expropriation, deportation, and murder. This biography reconstructs her life and that of her husband Nathan Heinrich Heger, drawing from family archives, historical documents, and survivor testimonies, with particular attention to their family background, personal circumstances, and tragic end in the Minsk Ghetto.
Early Life and Family Background
Tilly was the daughter of Levi Nathan Leeuwarden (1843–1904) and Rosette Polack (1846–1900). Levi, born in Winschoten, Netherlands, ran a fashion shop in Delmenhorst after moving there around 1865–1866. He married Rosette, whose family had roots in Oldersum and Thienfelde, Germany. Their civil marriage likely took place in Delmenhorst, reflecting the blend of Jewish tradition and secular integration common at the time. Levi initially resided on a Winschoten citizenship permit, highlighting the family’s transnational ties. Rosette died of tuberculosis in 1900, and Levi in Oldenburg in 1904; both are buried in Delmenhorst’s Jewish cemetery.
The Leeuwardens had nine children, typical of a middle-class Jewish family in Wilhelmine Germany. Tilly’s siblings included:
Little is known of Tilly’s early occupation, but family lore suggests she ran a children’s home, possibly in Cologne. She was well-read and poetic, traits noted in family recollections. As a practicing member of Delmenhorst’s Jewish community (Jüdische Gemeinde Delmenhorst), she embodied the assimilated yet observant Judaism common among German Jews. In 1908, at age 27, she gave birth to Julius Leeuwarden (November 5, 1908–January 9, 1981). Julius’s father remains unknown, though speculation points to Nathan Heger as a pre-marital partner. Julius spent summers at Villa Rosa on Wangerooge with cousins like Hans Lehmkuhl, bonds disrupted by the war.
Marriage and Family Life
Tilly married Nathan Heinrich Heger on May 28, 1926, in Delmenhorst. Nathan, born May 21, 1876, in Delmenhorst, was a tailor specializing in fire brigade uniforms. Baptized Evangelical Christian but of partial Jewish descent (a “half-Jew” or Halbjude under Nazi classification), he was reclassified as a “validity Jew” (Geltungsjude) due to his marriage to Tilly, a full Jew (Volljüdin) with four Jewish grandparents. Nathan’s first marriage to Minna Clara Thiele (1878–1925) produced three sons: Henry (Richard Karl Heinrich, 1905–1937), Willy (Friedrich Wilhelm, 1907–?), and Richard (Alfred Richard, 1911–1979). Tilly and Nathan had no children together.
Family life centered in Delmenhorst, where Nathan owned property at Kleine Kirchstrasse 9. He clashed with the municipality over unemployed men urinating against his house near the old labor office, filing police complaints. Photos from 1925–1926 show family gatherings at Villa Rosa, with Tilly, Nathan, Julius, and relatives like Rose Hugenholtz-Lehmkuhl. Henry’s marriage to Mathilde prompted him to sever ties with Nathan, likely due to her Jewish faith amid rising antisemitism. Henry joined the NSDAP, SA, and SS, dying in 1937 after surgery; his funeral honored his Nazi affiliations, though Himmler demoted him for concealing Jewish ancestry. His obituary in the Syke newspaper of January 29, 1937, praised him as a “loyal fighter” of the NSDAP who founded the local group in Syke in 1919.
The 1930s brought escalating persecution. The 1939 census registered Tilly as a Volljüdin. Their home at Kleine Kirchstrasse 9 was expropriated and sold cheaply to Nazi sympathizers. By late 1939, Delmenhorst’s Jewish population had dwindled to 21. Tilly and Nathan, expelled, hid in a miserable attic, surviving on landlord aid. Tilly refused emigration, citing her Iron Cross (likely from wartime service), believing it protective—a common delusion among decorated Jews.
Family letters, such as Heinrich Heger’s (Nathan’s grandson) of February 7, 2013, reveal Nathan’s quarrels with the municipality over urinating workers. Heinrich’s research notes Henry’s break with the family after Mathilde’s arrival and rapid NSDAP membership. Willy emigrated on May 22, 1939, from Bremen to Valparaiso, Chile, aboard the HAPAG ship Roda, as confirmed by passenger lists. Richard, Nathan’s youngest son, wrote a 1953 life story in Osnabrück asylum, describing his early life in Bremen, schooling, and NSDAP involvement, citing Nathan’s Jewish origin as cause for demotion and his own family rift.
The Nazi Era and Persecution
Under the Nuremberg Laws, Tilly and Nathan faced increasing isolation. Jews were barred from professions, property ownership, and public life. Nathan’s business suffered; their assets were confiscated. In April 1940 they were deported to Bremen, registered at Ostertorsteinweg 100, then Scharnhorststraße 121 from September 26, 1941. This “resettlement” (Umsiedlung) was a euphemism for forced relocation preluding deportation.
On November 18, 1941, Tilly (60) and Nathan (65) were among 408 Jews from Hamburg and Bremen deported to Minsk. The Gestapo’s “evacuation order” (Evakuierungsbefehl) required reporting to Bremen’s assembly point, surrendering assets via an eight-page declaration (Vermögenserklärung). They could bring 50 kg luggage, bedding, three days’ food, and 100 Reichsmarks (confiscated). The train departed Bremen at 8:40 a.m., stopped in Hamburg, and traveled via Stargard, Schneidemühl, Warsaw, Bialystok, and Baranowitschi, arriving in Minsk after five days.
The Minsk Ghetto: A Hell on Earth
The Minsk Ghetto, established during the German occupation of Byelorussia (now Belarus), was one of the largest and deadliest concentration points for Jews in the occupied Soviet territories. It served as an instrument of isolation, exploitation, and genocide, aligned with the “Final Solution of the Jewish Question.” Tilly and Nathan arrived in November 1941 and likely perished in July 1942 during a major “Aktion” (mass murder operation). Based on survivor accounts, such as Heinz Rosenberg’s, and documents from the Hamburg deportation transport to Minsk, this section details the horror.
Minsk had a Jewish community since the 15th century. The 1926 census recorded 53,700 Jews (40.8% of the population). Refugee influxes from occupied Poland raised this to about 90,000 by the German invasion on June 22, 1941. The city fell on June 28; executions began immediately. 40,000 men were rounded up; 2,000 Jewish intellectuals were shot. The region fell under Reichskommissariat Ostland, led by Hinrich Lohse, with Wilhelm Kube as Generalkommissar for Weißruthenien (White Ruthenia). Kube, assassinated by partisans in 1943, oversaw the genocide.
The ghetto was established on July 20, 1941, encompassing 34 streets including Perekopskaia, Nemiga, and Respublikanskaia, plus the Jewish cemetery. Barbed wire and watchtowers enclosed it; a curfew ran from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. Each person was allotted 1.5 m² of living space. Thousands lived in ruins without windows or floors. A Judenrat, led by Eliyahu Myshkin, registered the population. Jews wore a yellow star and a white badge with house number. The population swelled to 100,000 with arrivals from nearby towns.
Conditions were inhuman: overcrowding, starvation (300g watery soup daily), typhus epidemics, and forced labor. Official rations fell below survival levels. A labor camp on Shirokaya Street housed Jews and Soviet POWs, later serving as a transit for executions. Reich Jews like Tilly and Nathan arrived from November 1941. To make space, 12,000 local Jews were murdered at Tuchinki on November 7. Reich Jews were placed in a separate “Sonderghetto,” segregated from Russian Jews, marked by a “Sonderghetto” sign. Nightly murders killed 70–80 newcomers. The Sonderghetto was divided by origin: Hamburg, Berlin, Rhineland, Bremen, Vienna.
Genocide escalated through “Aktions” by Einsatzgruppe B under Arthur Nebe, with police units and local collaborators. Between August and November 1941: 5,000 in August, 7,000 in November at Tuchinki. In March 1942 an Aktion killed 5,000, including orphans thrown alive into pits—Kube tossed candy at them. Gas vans (mobile gas chambers) were introduced after Himmler’s August 1941 visit, seeking “more humane” methods. Saurer or Opel trucks killed with exhaust fumes. In May 1942, Maly Trostinec extermination site opened 12 km east of Minsk.
The largest Aktion (July 28–31, 1942) killed 30,000, including many Reich Jews. Ordered by Kube, it involved encircling the ghetto, herding victims to Trostinec pits, shooting, and burning bodies. Tilly and Nathan likely perished here, as noted on their Bremen Stolpersteine: “Ermordet in Minsk.” By August 1942 only 8,794 Jews remained.
Resistance emerged: an underground with 450 members helped 10,000 escape to partisans in the forests, though few survived. In September–October 1943 transports went to Sobibór, where many were gassed. Final liquidation occurred October 21, 1943: the last 2,000 were killed at Maly Trostinec. The Red Army liberated Minsk on July 3, 1944; only about 10 Reich Jews survived.
Nazi statistics record 86,632 Jews murdered by February 1943. Between November 1941 and October 1942, 35,442 Reich Jews arrived; few survived. Of 999 Austrian deportees, only 3 survived. Postwar, collaborators faced Soviet trials; figures like Adolf Rübe (ghetto terrorizer) received life sentences in West Germany. Rosenberg was hanged at Nuremberg; Kube was killed by partisans.
In 2004 Minsk had 1.7 million inhabitants, 1.7% Jewish. Memorial sites like Yad Vashem and Trostinec commemorate the victims. Tilly’s story illustrates the tragedy of assimilated Jews who fled too late. Her Stolperstein in Bremen (Scharnhorststraße 121) marks her last address.
Death and Legacy
Tilly’s fate underscores the Holocaust’s toll on assimilated Jews. Stolpersteine in Bremen at Scharnhorststraße 121 memorialize her and Nathan. Julius emigrated to Argentina in 1936 as Julio, lost contact with cousins, but reconnected with family in 2023 via the Hugenholtz website. No direct descendants from Tilly’s marriage survive, but her story endures through archives like Yad Vashem and family research.
Tilly embodied resilience amid erasure. Her refusal to flee, rooted in misplaced faith in awards, reflects many Jews’ tragic optimism. As historian Saul Friedländer notes, the Holocaust was “an event that ultimately defies historical knowledge and conventional historical narrative.” Tilly’s biography, pieced from fragments, honors that complexity.
Parents of Mathilde Heger-Leeuwarden (my great-great-grandparents): Levi Nathan Leeuwarden (1843-1904) and Rossette Leeuwarden-Polack (1846-1900).
Mathilde Heger-Leeuwarden (1881-1942)
Four sisters: Mathilde Heger-Leeuwarden, Gretchen Lehmkuhl-Leeuwarden, Lenchen Goldschmidt-Leeuwarden and Henny Willig-Leeuwarden.
Omstreeks 1915: Strandfoto genomen in Wangerooge. Rose Hugenholtz-Lehmkuhl met schep; 3e rechts voor Gretchen;
Julius Leeuwarden (1908-1981), son of Mathilde Heger-Leeuwarden with his cousin and good friend Hans Lehmkuhl (1908-1992) . They spent many summers together.
Julius Leeuwarden (1908-1981), son of Mathilde Heger-Leeuwarden. His father is unknown. Perhaps Nathan Heger (1876-1942) was his pre-marital illegimate father, but I simply don't know. Julius emigrated to Argentina in 1936. At athat time his cousin Johann Lehmkuhl alread fled to the Netherlands with his mother. They never were able to reconnect. His daughter conted me in 2023 after the family in Argentine found my website. Julius used the name Julio in Argentine.
Villa Rosa on the beautiful island of Wangerooge (Germany), owned by her sister Röschen Levy-Leeuwarden and brother in law Moritz Levy where the family spend a lot of summer holidays. The building (Zedeliusstraße 32) was demolished in the 1980's.
Winter 1926?: Oma Rose Hugenholtz-Lehmkuhl (midden met haar tante Mathilde Heger-Leeuwarden (l) en moeder Gretchen (r)
oma Rose met haar tante Mathilde Heger-Leeuwarden. Omstreeks 1920?
1925: Grandmother Rose Hugenholtz-Lehmkuhl and her cousins Willy Heger (who emigrated to Chile) and Julius Leeuwarden (who emigrated to Argentine).
Wangerooge, summer 1925: Mathilde Heger-Leeuwarden (1881-1942)
Roschen Levy-Leeuwarden and her sister Mathilde (Tilly) Heger- Leeuwarden, Wangerooge 1925
Mina Clara Heger (1878-1925); first wife of Nathan Heger.
Julius Leeuwarden, Mathilde and Nathan Heger
Julius Leeuwarden, Mathilde and Nathan Heger (restored)
Hans Lehmkuhl, Henry Heger (in his very early SS-uniform), Mathilde/Tilly Heger-Leeuwarden, Gretchen Lehmkuhl-Leeuwarden, Rose Hugenholtz-Lehmkuhl, Nathan Heger; around 1925/26
Reconstruction of the former synagogue in Delmenhorst circa 1928. Address: Cramerstraße 20A, Delmenhorst. The building was set on fire and gutted during the pogrom night (9–10 November 1938); in 1940 it was converted into a multi-family house (exterior walls and parts of the stairwells were preserved).
Cramerstraße 20A, Delmenhorst. The building was set on fire and gutted during the pogrom night (9–10 November 1938); it was converted into a multi-family house in 1940 (exterior walls and parts of the stairwells were preserved). This photo was taken in 2013.
Mathilde Heger-Leeuwarden (1881-1942) and her husband Nathan Heger (1876-1942).
Mathilde Heger-Leeuwarden (1881-1942)
Mathilde Heger-Leeuwarden (1881-1942)
Willy, Mathilde and Nathan Heger, Delmenhorst, summer 1938.
Julius Leeuwarden (1908-1981) and his mother Mathilde Heger-Leeuwarden.(restored)
Henry Heger (1905-1937), son of Nathan Heger.
Henry Heger (1905-1937), son of Nathan Heger
Delmenhorst 1935: “Jews enter Delmenhorst on their own risk”
Delmenhorst 1935: “Jews enter Delmenhorst on their own risk” (restored)
Family reunion with her sister and brother in law, probably around 1938: left to right: Nathan Heger, Mathilde Heger-Leeuwarden, Rudolf Willig, Henny Willig Leeuwarden.
Mathilde Heger-Leeuwarden (1881-1942) and her husband Nathan Heger (1876-1942).
Summer 1938: Visit of my great-grandmother to her sister Mathilde in Delmenhorst: Mathilde Heger-Leeuwarden (1881-1942) her sister Gretchen Lehmkuhl-Leeuwarden (1877-1952), Nathan Heger (1876-1942).
Around 1938: Mathilde Heger-Leeuwarden (1881-1942) and her husband Nathan Heger (1876-1942).
Mathilde Heger-Leeuwarden (1881-1942)
Around 1938: Mathilde Heger-Leeuwarden (1881-1942) and her son Julius Leeuwarden (1908-1981).
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Around 1938: Willy Heger, Mathilde Heger-Leeuwarden (1881-1942) and her husband Nathan Heger (1876-1942).
Around 1938: Mathilde Heger-Leeuwarden (1881-1942)
Around 1938: Mathilde Heger-Leeuwarden (1881-1942) and her husband Nathan Heger (1876-1942).
Mathilde Heger-Leeuwarden (1881-1942)
Nathan Heger and his son Willy Heger, Delmenhorst, summer 1938. Willy moved to Valparaoiso (Chili) around 1939. He desperately tried to get Nathan and Mathilde over to Chili, but didn't succeed.
There home in the Scharnhorststraße 121 in Bremen, where they had to live, after being expelled from Delmenhorst. From there they were deported to Minsk (Belarus). Picture taken in 2011.
Stolpersteine in front of their last home on the Scharnhorststraße 121 in Bremen, from wich they were deported to Minsk and murdered in 1942.
My cousin Rosita Steenbeek has written a novel about our grandmother. The book is available in bookstores. A historical novel worth reading, regularly feature the rest of the family.
See my special page: “Rose” https://www.hugenholtz.net/rose/ This contains the hyperlinks of the persons who appear in the book and who have hteir own webpage.