Betsy Wijnberg – Saved at the Jewish Theater Due to Illness

Betsy Wijnberg-Ehrlich of Hilversum b. 1919 worked before WWII as a bookkeeper in the Portuguese Synagogue of Amsterdam.
After her family was deported to Amsterdam in 1942 she began to work for a Jewish accountant, Meijer Henri Max Bolle, who was previously the head of the JNF of Holland an now the secretary of the Judenrad of Amsterdam. However she refused to make lists of Jewish goods and cooperate with the Nazi authorities and began to do housework for her employer.
In October 1942 Betsy was arrested together with the Bolle family. She was sick and bedridden with a kidney infection. Betsy told the Germans that she cannot lift her bag, and they said that someone would help her. Bolle was not at home and he turned himself in thinking that his position would save him. In this action the Jews of Amsterdam were all brought to the Jewish Theater, previously called the Hollands Theater.
People were dragged in to the theater from the sidewalk. Men, women and children lay on the floor. The Chief Rabbi of Amsterdam was also arrested and brought to the theater while Betsy was there. Betsy was sent to the balcony together with the other ill Jews and the elderly. Within a week transports began to Westerbork. The deportations took place at night so the neighbors could not see. Jews were told to keep away from the windows. Members of the Judenrad convinced the Germans that Betsy was too sick to travel. Walter Ziskind did everything he could to save Betsy. The Bolle family was sent to Westerbork.
There were two German guards at the theater. It was not difficult to bribe them with alcohol and many Jewish children were saved by taking them across the street to a Dutch kindergarten.
At one point Betsy was left with only two Jewish children and one guard. The guard called his officers to ask if he can free them. Instead even more Jews were brought to the theater. Word was sent to Betsy's parents by Ziskind that money was need for alcohol to bribe the guards. Within three weeks Betsy was freed.
At this point Betsy's neighbors in Hilversum the Van der Weijer family found a place for her to hide in Hollandsche Rading by Jan Westerbroek. She hid there 13 months in the small farm house.
The Jewish Underground and especially Joop Westerweel and Betsy's friend Miriam Waterman of Loosdrecht arranged to help Betsy cross the Belgian and French borders. Eventually she crossed the Pyrenees by foot in the winter snow to her freedom in Spain. Here she met Dan Ehrlich of Stassbourg. Betsy and Dan were married and lived in Kiryat Ata in Israel with their four children.