It is not my objective to take anything away from the story told by my Uncle Sjirk, it is just my curiosity that drove me to investigate the happenings of this family further.
I am not sure if superstition had any influence on this, but I received a telephone call in 2005 from Jos Poran from Israel. He was interested in some details about a family Postma. He had been in hiding with them during World War Two because he was Jewish.
The family Jos was enquiring about was my Grandfather Klaas, Grandma Klaaske, Uncle Hendrik and Aunt Geeske. At the time they all lived at the Postma farm, located in Nijemirdum, Gaasterland; a district in the South West area of Friesland.
At the end of our conversation he asked about Betty de Bruin, a Jewish girl who had been in hiding during the war at my parent’s house. Betty, around the time of the birth of my sister Karin in 1944, had visited de Postma’s for a few day’s.
I told Jos that we had had no contact with Betty for the last 25 years.
A few day’s later, Jos called again with the message that he had found Betty’s address; she now lived in Hilversum, a town close to Amsterdam. I contacted and visited her and we had an absolutely terrific time. I hope that I can share the rest of this story with you on my website.
As I was busy studying the history of what happened to the Locher family, once again I intensely reviewed the stories, written by my uncle Sjirk and Herre, about the Jewish family whom had lived in hiding during the war at the house of my grandparents Johan and Trijntje de Boer.
The first thing I did was to check all the Locher-entries in the Dutch phonebook. I found 25 of them. I also found out that there were two Locher families, meaning from two separate origins. Most of them were from a Swiss background, but those Lochers had arrived in the Netherlands after the war, so they could be excluded.
The Locher I was most interested in, was living in Amsterdam. I thought he had to be
the one I was looking for, but unfortunately he could not be of assistance. One of the
last telephone calls I made brought me to a family in Emmen, not too far from the city
where I live now.
When I told them my story -it was an elderly man I was talking to- he said that the story had to be about his cousins Maupie and Clare Locher. Bingo. Unfortunately he could not help me any further because he had no contact whatsoever with any members of the family. Only a few members of the Locher family survived the German occupation and after the war communications within the family had come to a halt.
No address, telephone number or anything I could put my hands on was available to me. There was no choice but to visit the archives of the city of Amsterdam and that brought me some better results.
Until 1939 all families of Amsterdam received a family certificate. There were also licenses for citizens who were dealing goods at the market. In most cases the licenses were accompanied with a picture of the person in question.
I went to visit the archive offices Monday, August 8, 2005 and found the papers I just described.Our family Locher was made up as follows:
Mozes (Maupie) Locher, born February 13th, 1905 in Amsterdam.
Clara Hamerslag, born August 30, 1906 in Amsterdam.
Mietje (Miep) Locher, born November 17, 1925.
Karel Locher, born April 24, 1928.
Abraham (Appie) Locher, born June 16, 1932.
Miep did not survive the war and Karel was the main character in the story written by uncle Sjirk Johan’s “is tomorrow your birthday?”
The next step I had to take was to find out if Abraham was still alive.
It was a great advantage to me that the name Locher was not very popular in the U.S.A. After reviewing many telephone books I came across an A. Locher around the right age of 73 years.
This person lived in Boynton Beach Florida, USA. I planned to call him August 11, 2005 to find out if he was the right one. Much to my delight he was and we could even communicate in the Dutch language.
He informed me that Father Mozes and mother Clare had passed away some time ago and brother Karel had died in 1999. Sister Miep (Ester), born after the war,and of course Appie, were still alive.
When I told Appie my story, he said “ I’m getting Goose bumps”. We agreed that he would first read the story about his parents and then he would return the call to me the next day.
He kept his promise and told me that all his family had read the story as well; it was a blessing it had been translated in English.
His first thoughts, he told me, were about his mother, a good hearted lady with excellent cooking skills. The family could not afford a maid before the war. The Locher family, as well as Appie himself, agreed that the story about their history was very well documented. (2005)
I interviewed Appie by phone, his story is documented in part 4.
From Alan, his son, I received the 'history' of the last part of Karel's life.( november 2007)
Alan, son
Karel, father
Karel Locher moved to the United States after World War II with his brother Abraham in tow on June 2, 1950. One of his first jobs was working in a metal factory before becoming a presser.
In 1958 Karel traveled back to Amsterdam to play soccer for the Holland Sporting Club. During his visit he met his future wife Fifi at DeKroon in Rembrantsplein. Fifi joined Karel in the United States later that same year. The two married on June 7, 1959 at a Portuguese Synagogue in NYC. Shortly after they were married they moved to Carlstadt, NJ. From Carlstadt they moved to Garfield, New Jersey where they lived until 1967.
Amsterdam: De Kroon, Rembrandtsplein
Karel and Fifi had their first child Monique Jacqueline on 8/1/61 and their second child Alan Glenn was born on 10/18/66. The family moved to Ridgefield, NJ in 1967 where Karel and Fifi remained until their deaths in 1999 and 2007.
Karel went to work for Somes Uniforms in 1957 / 58 and worked there for 37 years. He retired in 1994 shortly after his last hospital stay. Karel was hospitalized in 1994 for bypass heart surgery and swore he never wanted to be hospitalized again. He had been hospitalized numerous times over the years.
Monique married John Collins on 9/20/91 and they had two children Zachary (4/12/94) and Benjamin (7/3/96). They currently reside in Davidson, North Carolina. Alan currently resides in New York City.
Karel died in his sleep peacefully on January 6, 1999. The night before he died he spent a quiet evening at home with his family doing what he loved to do – playing with his two grandsons Zack and Ben.
My father was a quiet man and not very forthcoming about the war.
We did get my father
(and my mom) to film his experience during the war for Steven
Spielberg's SHOAH Foundation.
InterviewCode 11395.
End of Part 3
Karel Locher
Appie Locher
family-certificate
market-license
Mozes (Maupie) Locher
pake Johan Ates sr. wrote this in an inquiry (juni '45)
(He wrote:) We were hiding a Jewish couple during the war and once I had to pick up a Jewish boy from the tram to deliver him to another hiding place. While I walked next to him I detected that he was the son of the family hiding at our house. Needless to say that we could not stop ourselves from crying.
Passengerslist of the ss Veendam with Karel and Appie, 1950
Passengerslist of the ss Veendam with Maupie, Clara and Miep; 1951
