The Journey That Ended Too Soon
In the terrifying world of Nazi-occupied Holland, some clung to a desperate hope. Franz Ledermann, a translator for the Jewish Council, believed his family would be safe if they simply obeyed the law. But on June 20, 1943, that illusion was shattered when his family was deported to the Westerbork camp. Among them was his daughter, Susanne “Sanne” Ledermann, a friend of Anne Frank.
For a brief, agonizing four months, the family was afforded a fragile protection by their “Palestine papers.” Sanne’s older sister, Barbara, had managed to escape their fate, acquiring a false ID and going underground in Amsterdam.
On the morning of November 16, 1943, the illusion of safety was gone. Sanne and her parents were put on a train to Auschwitz. Before their departure, her mother, Ilse Ledermann, wrote a few heartbreaking lines to her daughter Barbara: “My Darling, we are about to depart on our first long journey in a long time. My little Barbara, we will see each other again.” It was a mother’s final, desperate attempt to hold on to hope.
But there would be no reunion. On November 19, 1943, just days after their departure from Westerbork, Sanne and her parents were sent to the gas chambers immediately upon their arrival at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Sanne Ledermann was just fifteen years old.
The story of the Ledermann family is a stark reminder of the brutality of the Holocaust and the devastating betrayal of a false promise. It is a story of a family who believed they could be safe by following the rules, only to have their trust lead them to a tragic end.
