Meier Vomberg

Ik ben Joshua Vomberg, uit Ottawa, Canada. Mijn Opa Joop Vomberg was de kleinzoon van Mietje Vromen-Vomberg, de neef van Solomon en Johanna Vomberg, een neef van Nathan, Bertha, Meier en Juda.

Ik zal doorgaan in het Engels om je oren te beschermen.

We thank the Stolpersteine organization of Zutphen for your invitation to remember and give a name to these close relatives we never had the chance to meet or know.

L’Dor v’dor. From generation to generation.

We represent four generations, from Nederland, Canada, the USA and Israel from the Vomberg and Vromen families, all descendants of or related to Mietje Vromen Vomberg. We are able to participate in this very meaningful day due to the kindness, courage and altruism of those who helped hide our parents and grandparents. We exist because they stood up. We acknowledge with deep gratitude the descendants of our onderduik families who have joined us here today.  

Oma Mietje, her son Solomon Vomberg, his wife Johanna Plaut Vomberg and their four children Nathan, Bertha, Meier and Juda - were not as fortunate as our parents. Tragically, there were not enough ordinary folk who behaved with such extraordinary heroism between 1940-45.

Throughout our lives, we heard about life in Zutphen from my Opa Joe, Tante Meta and Tante Esther.  They had such fond memories of growing up here, living above Opa and Oma’s store on the Nieuwstad.  It was always an open house for visitors and travellers, a place with fond friendships and good times. I am sure my Opa and Tantes played with Nathan, Bertha, Meier and Juda in these streets when they were young.That all changed in 1940.

Now, who was Meitje Vromen-Vomberg?  
Oma Mietje was born in Lochem and married our great-Opa Nathan Vomberg in 1887. Their families had lived in Gelderland and Overijssel for centuries. Mietje and Nathan lived in Zutphen and their store, Nathan Vomberg & Sons, sold ‘dry goods’, textiles, bedding, mattresses and tailored clothes. The store was closed according to Jewish custom Friday afternoons and reopened on Sundays afternoons so their customers could shop after church services. Nathan and Mietje were active members of the Zutphen Jewish community, and worshipped at the synagogue.

Mietje and Nathan had 12 children and 28 grandchildren.

After Nathan died in 1931, Oma Mietje moved in with her daughter Susanna’s family in Almelo.  When the deGroot family went into hiding, Mietje decided to move to the Apeldoornse Bos where her 7th child, Gerson lived.  The Apeldoornse Bos, was a residential facility providing psychiatric and rehabilitative care, and  Mietje hoped she could find refuge and safety there.

You see, many Jews during the war found it extremely difficult to find hiding places, and thought they would be safe from razzias in such institutions. Tragically, no place was safe.

Apeldoornse Bos
The Apeldoornse Bos was subject to a cruel razzia on Jan. 21-22, 1943.  All 1300 residents and staff who were caught were deported directly by train from Apeldoorn to Auschwitz and immediately murdered. Oma Mietje and her son Gerson were murdered on arrival on Jan.25th, 1943.

All we can determine about Solomon was that The Police Commissioner of Zutphen requested that he be located in Zutphen, detained and brought to trial.  The “crime” he had committed was that he was suspected of having changed his place of residence without the required authorization. Of course, this referred to Jews who had gone into hiding.  

In total, 5 of Mietje’s 12 children perished. As we remember Mietje, Salomon & Johanna and their four children - Nathan, Bertha, Meier and Juda today with these stolpersteine,  we also remember Mietje’s children who ‘never came back’:   Louis Vomberg, Paulina Vomberg and her husband Salomon Wijler, Gerson Vomberg, Jacob Vomberg and his wife Selma, and Abraham Kats, the husband of Sientje Vomberg.

There is no formal resting place for our family to be memorialized, for us to visit.  We are grateful for the placing of these Stolpersteine, to always remember their names, the lives they led and how much they are missed.  

It is our sincere hope that society learns from the past, and that those walking over these stones realize these ordinary lives were snuffed out for no other reason than they were Jews.  May history never be repeated!

May the memory of their lives always be a blessing..

Heel erg bedankt dat we hier vandaag zijn.

Thank you so much,

Josh