Selma Engel-Wijnberg

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Selma Engel-Wijnberg
Engel-Wijnberg in 2010
Born
Saartje (Selme) Wijnberg

(1922-05-15)15 May 1922
Groningen, Netherlands
Died4 December 2018(2018-12-04) (aged 96)
Branford, Connecticut, US
Spouse
Chaim Engel
​
​
(m. 1945; died 2003)​
Children3
AwardsKnight of the
Order of Oranje-Nassau

Selma Engel-Wijnberg (born Saartje "Selme" Wijnberg;

Order of Oranje-Nassau
.

Early life

Wijnberg was born into a Jewish family in

Utrecht, and later in De Bilt.[5]

Holocaust years

While hiding she used the name "Greetje van den Berg".

Camp Westerbork, and finally deported to Sobibor extermination camp on 9 April 1943, along with 2,019 other Jewish men, women and children.[5] She survived the selection at arrival, and was assigned to the Arbeitshäftlinge unit in Lager II. There she was forced to sort the clothes of gas chamber victims so that they could be sent to German civilians disguised as charitable donations.[7][5] When guards were looking the other way, she would surreptitiously slash fine items to prevent them from being of use.[8]

In the sorting barracks Wijnberg met her future husband, Chaim Engel (10 January 1916 – 4 July 2003), a Polish Jew from Brudzew,[9][10] who was six years her senior. They were able to communicate in German. He helped her survive; for instance, when she contracted typhus and was weakened, he carried her to the latrines and helped her rest when the guards weren't looking.[11]

During the revolt in Sobibor on 14 October 1943, Wijnberg and Engel escaped together.

occupied Poland in July 1944 during Operation Bagration, the Red Army counter-offensive.[13] By that time, Selma was pregnant.[11]

The couple married,

Marseille, France. Chaim had to be smuggled aboard the ship, because Poles were not allowed to go to France. Because of this, Selma was nervous, and couldn't give any breastmilk to her son Emiel. She went to the kitchen, and asked for milk. She got given 'very heavy creamy milk', which she fed to her son. Because of this, the child got ill, and died within 24 hours. His body was buried at sea near Naxos.[12] From Marseille, the couple travelled north by train to Zwolle and returned to Selma's parents' home, Hotel Wijnberg, in the Netherlands.[14]

After the Second World War

In the Netherlands Chaim and Selma married again on 18 September 1945.

displaced persons camp for foreigners near Valkenswaard because the holding center was full, and Wijnberg was a Dutch native.[16]

While they lived in Zwolle, Engel-Wijnberg gave birth to two more children, a son and a daughter.[15] They set up a velvet fabric and fashion store.[17][9] In a 2015 interview, she said she and Chaim hated the Netherlands for their treatment after the war, when they tried to deprive her of her nationality and intended to deport them.[11] The family made aliyah (migrated to Israel) in 1951, where they moved several times. However, Engel did not feel comfortable there, so in 1957 they decided to emigrate to the United States. They settled in Branford, Connecticut.[12][9] They returned to Europe only to testify against the war criminals of Sobibor.[3]

On 12 April 2010, Minister

Order of Oranje-Nassau.[18] This occasion was the first time since she had left in 1951 that she returned to the Netherlands.[19][20] Chaim Engel died in Branford, Connecticut in 2003. Engel-Wijnberg died in Westport, Connecticut, on 4 December 2018 at the age of 96.[21]

Representation in other media

References

  1. ^ a b Holocaust Encyclopedia. "Selma Wijnberg". Profile. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
  2. ISBN 978-0985532888
    .
  3. ^ a b Liempt 2010, p. 120-21.
  4. ^ Liempt 2010, p. 13.
  5. ^ a b c d e "Interview: Saartje (Selma) Engel nee Wijnberg". Holocaust Research Project, US Holocaust Memorial Museum. 16 July 1990. Retrieved 4 December 2018.
  6. ^ Markham Walsh, Ann, Dancing through Darkness: When Love and Dreams Survived a Nazi Death Camp, (Nashville: Dunham Books, 2013), pp 43,46.
  7. ^ Schelvis 2014, p. 88.
  8. ^ Rashke 1982, p. 159.
  9. ^ a b c d e De Ree Archiefsystemen. "Chaim Engel". Sobibor Interviews. Netherlands Institute for War Documentation (NIOD).
  10. ^ Chaim Engel (16 July 1990). Oral history interview (video recording). Miles Lerman Center for the Study of Jewish Resistance: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Oral History Branch. Event occurs at 25:37. Retrieved 25 May 2016. Linda Kuzmack interview with Chaim Engel. Permanent Collection
  11. ^ a b c d "Selma Wijnberg was de laatste Nederlandse overlevende van Sobibór". Trouw (in Dutch). 4 December 2015. Retrieved 5 December 2018.
  12. ^ a b c d "Holocaust survivor from Branford tells of love amid horror (video)". New Haven Register. Retrieved 4 December 2018.
  13. ^ Liempt 2010, p. 104.
  14. ^ Liempt 2010, p. 113.
  15. ^ a b "Chaim Engel, 87, a Sobibor Escapee, Dies". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 December 2018.
  16. ^ Liempt 2010, p. 118.
  17. ^ Liempt 2010, p. 119.
  18. ^ a b "Dutch American death camp survivor receives apology and knighthood". Godutch. n.d. Retrieved 4 December 2018 – via (excerpt from the Windmill).
  19. ^ Officiële excuses voor Sobibor-overlevende, nos.nl, 8 April 2010.
  20. ^ "Dutch death camp survivor knighted". rnw.org.
  21. ^ Sobibor-overlevende Selma Engel-Wijnberg (96) overleden
  22. ^ "Selma Wijnberg: de vrouw die Sobibor overleefde". Drentheindeoorlog. Retrieved 4 December 2018.
  23. ^ "Selma: De vrouw die Sobibor overleefde" at Historiek.net
  24. ^ Selma: De vrouw die Sobibor overleefde, Uitzendinggemist.nl, 11 April 2010.

Bibliography

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