Stumbling Stones Bosweg
Selly de Vries-Haas and Clara Rozette de Vries
The Stolpersteine at Bosweg 36 in Nunspeet were laid on 18 July 2022 for the ‘Jewish ladies’ who stayed in this guesthouse, were arrested in August 1944 and were interned in Camp Westerbork on 16 August 1944. They left with the last transport to Auschwitz on 3 September 1944. Sellie de Vries-Haas was murdered in Auschwitz on 6 September 1944. Her daughter Clara Rozette de Vries never arrived in Auschwitz. Her fate is unknown.
Sellie de Vries-Haas
Clara de Vries
The two ladies came from Soesterberg and lived at Amersfoortsestraat 134 in the villa Kaja. Sellie de Vries-Haas was the widow of Aäron Hartog de Vries, who had died in Soest on 10 April 1937 at the age of 58. He had moved to the municipality of Soest from Amsterdam with his wife and daughter on 15 August 1929. His profession was manufacturer. He was the owner of the Stichtse Margarinefabriek, which would merge with the Remiafabriek in Den Dolder in 1951. Daughter Clara’s profession was proxy holder.
Sellie Haas was born in Strijen on 14 April 1886 as the youngest and eleventh child of Jacob Haas and Rachel Zwarenstein. She married Aäron Hartog de Vries in Strijen on 9 November 1909, born in Batenburg on 11 March 1879. The couple had one daughter: Clara Rozette was born in Rotterdam on 4 January 1911.
From Soest to Nunspeet
Clara de Vries met Chris en Elske Biesmeijer en een buurmeisje Margot (foto: familie Biesmeijer)
It is not known when Sellie and Clara de Vries moved into the Biesmeijer family’s boarding house Robersum on Bosweg in Nunspeet. Koos Biesmeijer had moved from bombed Rotterdam to Nunspeet on 7 April 1941 with his wife Stien and children to build a new life. The ‘Jewish ladies’ were never officially registered in the municipality of Ermelo. Their names do not appear on the house card for the building at Bosweg 36. The boarding house was therefore an excellent cover for the hiding. Because the ladies had been deregistered from the municipality of Soest on 3 December 1942 with the annotation VOW (left, unknown, where to). The mayor of Soest had even made a request for the tracking down, arrest and bringing to trial of Clara Rozette de Vries, living in the villa Kaja at Amersfoortsestraat 134. She was suspected of having changed her place of residence without having the required permits. To be read in the Algemeen Politieblad of October 29, 1942.
The ladies tried to live as normal a life as possible, as if there was no danger. They were betrayed by someone from the neighborhood and arrested by the Nunspeet NSB military police officer Karst Doeven. Stien Biesmeijer described it in her diary. However, she did not put any dates with her diary entries. So it is unknown what day it was. One evening, a number of NSB members, led by Doeven, entered the house, interrogated Sellie and Clara de Vries and arrested them. Little Elske Biesmeijer was even taken out of her bed because she looked Jewish.
Westerbork
It is known that Sellie and Clara were in Westerbork on 16 August 1944. The last train to Auschwitz left on 3 September. This transport of 1019 people also included Anne Frank and her family and Annie Otten-Wolff, who was arrested at the hairdresser Van Koot in the Dorpsstraat in Nunspeet on 18 July 1944. (See Stolperstein Dorpsstraat 6). Sellie de Vries-Haas was murdered immediately after arriving in Auschwitz on 6 September.
Clara Rozette de Vries never arrived in Auschwitz. Her date of death is unknown. The death certificate 131 of 7 July 1950 in the municipality of Soest therefore states: died between 3 September 1944 and 5 May 1945. The date of 5 May 1945 is officially used for anyone whose date of death is unknown. The Jewish Digital Monument also notes that it cannot be ruled out that she was the eighth person who jumped from the train just past Zwolle on September 3, 1944 and died. The seven people who jumped from the train survived.
Huize Robersum
Vier dames Brouwer uit Groningen hadden in 1909 het pand aan de Bosweg 36 laten bouwen en betrokken het in 1910. Van 1930 tot april 1941 stonden een nicht, Wilhelmina Tjardina Brouwer, en haar man Jan Ailko van der Tuuk als bewoners ingeschreven.
In 1941 werd Jacobus (Koos) Biesmeijer uit Rotterdam huurder. Hij begon een pension. In 1954 heeft Jan Vos het pand gekocht en is hier zelf gaan wonen in 1964. Nu woont kleinzoon Bert Vos er.