Their Own Words

The four Jewish teenagers lived with their parents and siblings in the Netherlands. Jews enjoyed equal rights with other citizens in what was then the Kingdom of the Netherlands. There was freedom of religion and little hostility towards Jews.

On 10 May 1940, Nazi Germany attacked the Netherlands. Five days later, the armed forces of the Netherlands surrendered. The Queen and the government had fled to England. The Tal, Levenbach and Reiner families had no chance to flee. Now they had to live under German occupation.

In summer 1942, the German occupiers began arresting increasing numbers of Jews. They were told they were being sent to Germany to perform labour. At the time, however, rumours about the true destination of the transports were beginning to spread, which made the people in the Netherlands mistrustful. Sensing the danger, the Tal, Levenbach and Reiner families began seeking ways to protect themselves.

From 1942 until the end of the German occupation, around 28,000 Jews tried to escape the threatening situation they were in by assuming a different identity or going into hiding. Roughly a third of these people were betrayed or discovered; two-thirds lived to see liberation.
At the end of 1942, Avraham’s cousin Sol Kimel had to go into hiding. He was in danger because his mother, Avraham’s aunt Eva, had been arrested.
In the summer of 1943, the Reiner family also went into hiding and became what the Dutch called “undergrounders”. They received help from members of the Dutch resistance and from an employee of Jo Reiner’s expropriated company.

After their arrest, most Jews were taken to the Westerbork “Police Transit Camp” for Jews. From there, deportation trains departed for the Auschwitz and Sobibor extermination camps, but also for the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and the Theresienstadt ghetto. Because the Tal and Levenbach families had papers for entry into Palestine, they were taken to Bergen-Belsen.
The Reiner family arrived in Westerbork later, after deportations had already ceased.

The Nazis deported thousands of Jews from occupied countries to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. They wanted to exchange these Jewish hostages for Germans who were in enemy countries, or for ransom money. The Tal and Levenbach families were both deported to the Bergen-Belsen “exchange camp” and hoped to reach freedom from there.
At that time, European Jews were already being systematically murdered. The Jewish hostages in Bergen-Belsen were also very much at risk. When they were of no further use to the SS, they were deported and murdered.

In April 1945, the SS moved most of the hostages away from the exchange camp. The three trains that departed from Bergen-Belsen were probably headed for Theresienstadt. Many hostages died during or shortly after the journey. One of the trains was liberated near the village of Tröbitz. This train was later referred to as the “Lost Train”.