Eva and Abraham Beem: The Heartbreaking Story of Two Young Victims of the Holocaust

The story of Eva and Abraham Beem is one that will break your heart into a thousand pieces. This young couple, who were forced to hide their Jewish identity during World War II, met a tragic end in the Auschwitz concentration camp on March 6, 1944.

Abraham and Eva were just two children when they were taken away from their foster parents by four Dutch policemen, who had received orders to arrest them. The children, along with their foster family, had been living under fake names for about two years, attending school, making friends, and even writing coded letters to their parents.

Tragically, the police forced Abraham to undress, and despite his protests that they were not Jews, they took him away with Eva. Their parents, Hartog Beem, a Dutch-Jewish historian, linguist, and teacher, and Rosetta Beem-Kannewasser, an active member of the Jewish community, had been hiding in their home town of Leeuwarden, Friesland, Netherlands, hoping to survive the war.

The story was reconstructed by journalist Teake Zijlstra in the late 1980s. It is still unknown who betrayed the children. The police officers were never punished for this crime, which was likely not an isolated incident.

In a column written by Dutch journalist Frits Abrahams, he described the scene: 'Those men looking at that small penis, and giving each other a delighted look: Gotcha!' Abraham and Eva's parents only learned of their children's fate after the war. It is heartbreaking to think about the two young lives cut short, with so much potential and promise.

As we remember the victims of the Holocaust today, on Holocaust Remembrance Day, let us not forget the stories like that of Eva and Abraham Beem, who were taken away from their families and lost their lives in one of the darkest periods of human history.

Eva and abraham beem parents