Biography

About Emanuel Mendels

Emanuel Mendels was a son of Abraham Mendels and Mina Davidson, a family with nine children, of whom six have died in the Holocaust: Emanuel himself, Pietje, Betje, Hendrica, Levi, and Sara. The other children have died at young age.
Emanuel married 16 November 1906 in Lemsterland to Elsje Davidson, daughter of Marcus Davidson and Froukje Velleman.
websites www/tresoar.nl and www.wiewaswie.nl.

In the 1920s and 30s Wolvega had three thriving export butchers, who owed their success mainly to slaughtering pigs. After being slaughtered, the animals were packed in crates and exported to England in most cases. They went down in history as the London piglets. One of the three slaughterhouses was owned by Messrs Mendels and Slager and was located in premises just north of the railroad tracks. When the operation outgrew these accommodations, the owners acquired the slaughterhouse of the Leser family south of the railroad tracks. One owner, the Slager family, lived in Steenwijk, while the other two owners, the two Messrs Mendels, lived in Wolvega and Meppel.

Emanuel Mendels lived on the Van Helomalaan in Wolvega. He was married to Elsje Davidson, born in Lemsterland in 1884. They had a foster son, Abraham Delmonte, who was related to Emanuel Mendels. Abraham Delmonte did the company books.
The deaf-mute brother and a sister of Emanuel Mendels, Levi Mendels and Hendrica Mendels, lived in Wolvega.

On 14 December 1942 Emanuel Mendels was picked up, taken to Westerbork and deported to Auschwitz from there. He was killed in the sub-camp Birkenau. On 16 March 1943 his wife Elsje Mendels-Davidson was picked up, taken to Camp Westerbork and deported to Sobibor the next day on 17 March 1943.
W.H. de Vries, ’De oorlog in Stellingwarven‘, in: De Ovend. Stellingwarfs Tiedschrift, nr 32, 17-19

This person is commemorated on a memorial in Noordwolde. More information on this memorial can be found (in Dutch) on the website of the Nationaal Comité 4 en 5 mei.