VALKENBURG 2024 – 80 years free

Point 17 [2] – Survivors of the Holocaust

Den Halder Castle: Philip Soesan: In hiding in South Limburg

On June 15, 1941, I was born in Amsterdam to Philip Soesan and Flora Soesan van Buuren. Soon my parents decided to give me away to a Catholic friend of my mother’s as the threat of raids increased. I had to leave there too; there were NSB members living behind the same door and the danger of betrayal was real.
An aunt of mine - Louise Soesan-Suylen - first brought me to live with her brother Leo in Roosteren. I have no memories of that period, but Leontine, daughter of Leo recently told me that her father had gone with me to the hospital in Sittard.
I had meningitis and infantile paralysis and was literally deathly ill. The medical director refused to hospitalize me, and since there was little hope for me, Leo asked the church in Roosteren for permission to prepare the funeral. That too was refused; both times because it concerned a Jewish child. The family then decided on emergency baptism, so I also became Roman Catholic. I gradually got better. Maybe because of baptism? Who knows?
My second hiding address was in Valkenburg with the Van Bergen family on Kloosterweg, the last house before the huge Jesuit convent. Mrs. Van Bergen (I called her Mum) was also a sister of my aunt Louise. I lived there until the beginning of 1946 and I have fond memories of it. The family consisted of five people: Uncle Piet, “Mom”, the sons Father Hein and Alex as well as daughter Jetta. It was she especially who took me under her wings and protected me even after the war.” I remember Uncle Pete - he was a municipal police officer - taking me with him when he went shooting rabbits and pigeons. Then we ate rabbit or pigeon in the evening. And I also remember walking to church in Broekhem twice on Sunday, the grating of the irons under the boots of the Germans as they came marching by from the monastery. Then I was called inside “Robbie, Robbie” because that was my hiding name then. I also liked the visits to milkman Aarts and his cows a little further on.
I thought uncle Piet and Mum were my father and mother, not knowing that my parents had already been murdered in Auschwitz in September 1942. After the war I went back, only Hein, Alex and Jetta were still alive then. Alex had a souvenir store, first I think on Lindenlaan and later on Berkelstraat if I remember correctly. Hein was a missionary in Moçambique for many years.
Now Ans and Arie Curvers live in the Moçambique house on Kloosterweg. My wife and I have become friends with them over the years and we see each other every now and then, most recently at the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Valkenburg. And we have also become friends with Mary (and Cees) de Goede-van Gelder. Mary was a Jewish child in hiding in Houthem. That creates a bond and when we first met it felt good. We share a common history.
Now I have lived in Bergen op Zoom for a long time, have been married for a long time to Els. We have got a son, David, and a daughter, Barbara and we are the proud grandparents of three children.
Cordially, Philip Soesan