Hijman van Emden was a son of Arnold van Emden and Truida Hakker. He was married and had two children. Because of his marriage to a non-Jewish wife Hijman van Emden was exempted from deportation. The day after New Year 1943 he got a call to report to the headquarters of the Rotterdam police at the Haagse Veer. A neighbour, whose husband had taken voluntary service in the SS, had made a charge against him. On New Year's Eve a libel had been fitted on her front door. She accused Hijman van Emden, presumably because he was the only one in the neighourhood with a yellow star on his clothing. At the police Hijman van Emden was badly beaten to force a confession. After she had visited him, his wife received his broken dentures, his crushed glasses and a bloody shirt to take home. He was sent to Vught concentration camp, from where he has sent some (censored) letters. Later, as a last sign of life, a postcard from Auschwitz was received. The letters and postcard can be seen in the memory centers of respectively Vught and Westerbork.
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