Joseph (Jo) (1896 – 1943?)
Jo van Cleef is the son of Jacob van Cleef and his first wife Christina Suikerman. His full name Joseph is after his grandfather Joseph Suikerman.
From his parents divorce in 1899 until 1926 Jo lives with his grandparents van Cleef (after the death of grandfather Salomon in 1920 only with his (step)grandmother Golda) in Rotterdam. From 1926 to 1928 Jo and Golda live in Amsterdam (Hemonystraat 29 III); then Golda returns to Rotterdam, where she dies in 1936.
Jo is working in a textile factory, but has to leave because he brings trouble by introducing trade unions for the workers. Jo moves in 1928 to Brussels (Rue de la Montagne 92), at the age of 32.
Brussels has an important dutch community. Jo starts an import trade with an associate named 'van den Berg' (also dutch and jewish). Their trade is importing coton from various countries – like for instance Egypt - and sell it to matrass factories. With this job he has a very good income and he is living very comfortably in a large appartment near the Cinquantenaire on avenue Michel Ange.
Some jews of the dutch community try to present Jo "good jewish women”, but he doesn't want to marry one of them. Instead he dates Agnès Rosalie Smekens, a belgian girl working at the Central Post office as administrative.
They marry in 1938 and their daughter Colette is born 2 April 1939. Agnes continues her job after marriage and even when having Colette. (Jo and Agnes can afford to have a girl servant).
At the end of 1939, Agnes stops working. The family lives in an apartment on avenue du Castel in Woluwe St Lambert, a beautiful suburb of Brussels.
In 1940, they leave Belgium to go to France. In Nice they live under italian occupation and are sent to Saint Martin Vésubie.
Saint Martin Vésubie – Borgo San DalmazzoFrom November 1942 the French Alpes-Maritimes were occupied by Italy. The sympathy of the Italian authorities caused the area to become a safe haven for thousands of Jewish refugees from all over Europe. Jews were able to achieve a modicum of safety and legal residency under the Italian authorities, who relocated them to Saint-Martin-Vésubie. The sympathy of the Italian authorities was mainly due to the work of the Italian Jewish banker Angelo Donati. In a period of several weeks after the Italian Armistice in September 1943, and under direct threat from the German authorities, a thousand of Saint-Martin's Jews made the climb up the Col de Fenestre or the Col de Cerise (both about 2,500m) into what they thought was the safety of Italy. For two third of them it actually was: they were hidden by local Italian farmers and survived the war. The other one third were captured by the Italian police and brought together in Borgo San Dalmazzo. From there they were transported back to Nice and eventually to Auschwitz. Very few of them survived. Also all the remaining Jews in Saint-Martin were arrested and transported to Auschwitz. Every year the jewish exodus is remembered by a march and a jewish service on one of the pass heights. |
In 1943, Jo decides to try to go to Switzerland through the mountains. He leaves with a couple from Austria and an another man. They arrive in Borgo San Dalma
Receipt of cash money after Joseph van Cleef has been transported back to Nice, where they are arrested and imprisoned.
Agnes is in contact with Jo and is preparing his escape, but at the last moment he does't want to, because every time someone tries to escape, reprisals are taken against the other prisoners!
Jo gives the advice to Agnes to go back to Belgium. So Agnes and Colette leave St Martin on the last bus before the German arrival!
In Nice they take the night train to Paris, but the train derails as result of an action of the french resistance against the German officers who are in the spleeping coaches at the front of the train.
In Paris Agnes has some friends. Meanwhile Jo has arrived in Drancy, the French 'Durchgangslager' for prisoners with destination Sobibor, Auschwitz or any other 'Vernichtungslager'. Agnes visits Jo for the last time in the company of a representative of the belgian embassy who testifies that it is a "mixte marriage". But the head of the camp tells that Jo has not been arrested for racist reasons but for his participation in a "resistant group acting in England, France and Belgium”. Agnes could stay with him but Jo urges her to take care of their daughter.
The last we know for sure is that Jo is on a transport from Drancy to Auschwitz on 17 december 1943.
Hotel ExcelsiorAuthor Stella Silberstein is one of those who flee into Italy and eventually are sent to Auschwitz. She and her husband Richard Borger actually make their flight together with Joseph van Cleef (whom she calls in her book 'Ernest' for unknown reasons). p 145: ….Later we got to know Ernest and Agnes van Cleef. They also had a mixed marriage. He was a jew, she a catholic. They had a splendid, four year old girl. Where would they be, Agnes and her little Colette? And Ernest? 1 He was a tall man of 40 jears, with a bunch of thick brown hair and a naughty face. He had the habit of looking to people from the corners of his eyes, which – with his thick glasses - made him look a bit helpless. He was brought up liberally, had never felt himself jewish. Also his blond, pretty wife Agnes, much younger than he was, didn't care much about religion. Suddenly the persecution of the Jews had started and now he had to aknowledge he was a Jew. Their nice, orderly world had collapsed. They started to wander, hided here and there, came to southern France. Agnes did'nt leave him, not even for a day. Stella, Richard, 'Ernest' and a friend Teddy escape to Italy over the Colli di Finestra and find refuse in the nunnery of Entraques, together with many more jewish refugees. Unfortunately they all are caught by the german SS and emprisoned in Borgo San Dalmazzo. During the weeks they spend there they stay in contact with their relatives: p 165 ….Agnes Van Cleef wrote what was happening in St Martin-Vesubie after our break-out. The Germans raged there. Everybody without a Arier-declaration was arrested and removed. Also mrs Borger, Teddy's wife Else and Agnes and Colete were arrested. The last were free again after several hours, but Richards mother and mrs Else were moved, destination unknown. Our main concern was that mrs Borger had no warm clothes. November 20, 1943 they are transported back to France in cattle waggons with one open cask per waggon as a loo. P 179 ….The air was thick but endurable. Then nature demanded its rights. Nobody wanted to be the first. The bucket wasn't used yet. All of a sudden, like on command, people started to make the walk. I saw Van Cleef looking longing to the cask, but withhelding himself. I took hold of my rucksack to make way for him. He sneaked away. To climb over 50 or 100 people wasn't easy. When he came back Richard recieved him: “You must be a lot lighter now?” The ice was broken. We laughed. |