The Grünewald family came from Germany to Amsterdam at the end of 1938. After first having lived in the Meerhuizenstraat and on the Meerhuizenplein they settled down in Roerstraat 65’’’on january 5th. 1940. The family consisted of Erich Grünewald (1894), his wife Caecilia Vyth (1909) and their two daughters Lieselotte (1929) and Anita Maria (1931). After Anita was on the Joost van den Vondelschool in 1939/1940 she went to the Michiel de Klerkschool where she became classmate of Louis Izaak Leviticus (1931). The two soon had good contact with eachother and became inseparable. In his book “Tales from the Milestone” that Louis Izaak Leviticus wrote under the pseudonym Ben Wajikra he writes detailed about his close connection with her In chapter 5 in the 4th part on the pages 64 untill 68. In the openingline he describes her and looking at the classphoto of the Joost van den Vondelschool (last row 2th from left) she still was pretty good in his memory.
Her father, Erich Grünewald, was already picked up in may 1942 and tranported to a workingcamp in Ommen. During a big raid on 11th of June 1943 his wife and both her daughters were picked up. The discovery of their disappearance and above all Anita’s describes Leviticus as following:
After the war Leviticus came, after many rambles to the United States. During a visit to Holland in 1993 he finally dared, after almost 50 years, to examine how Anita’s life has passed away. These he describes this discovery on a touching way in the following passage:
Placed on request