In the summer of 2025, we were lucky enough to meet Rene Rosechild, who lives in Denver, Colorado, today, but whose family roots trace back via Canada to the Netherlands. Rene’s mother, Rosalie Nathans, was a Jewish Amsterdammer who was liberated from Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945. When she returned to Amsterdam, she discovered that she was the only member of her family who had survived the war. Rosalie’s mother, her father, her brother, her sister, her sister-in-law, her brother-in-law and her two young nephews had all been murdered or succumbed to disease or deprivation in the Nazi concentration camps. Having had her entire life taken away from her, Rosalie made the decision at the age of 20, to marry a Canadian soldier and emigrate to Canada.

Eighty years later, a large contingent of Rosalie Nathans’ descendants, from places all over the world, came together in Amsterdam to install memorial stones in front of their family’s former home on the Nieuwe Hoogstraat. These memorial stones are called Stolpersteine in German, struikelstenen in Dutch, or stumbling stones in English. They are brass plaques, placed on the street in front of buildings, which pay testament to the fact that at that address lived a victim of Nazi persecution. Three of those who attended the ceremony were Rosalie Nathans’ daughter Rene, who we mentioned at the beginning and two of Rene’s nieces, Rosalie Wood and Gabrielle Richter. We spoke with Rene in our studio in Amsterdam and later with Rosalie and Gabrielle via zoom. Throughout this episode we will hear from them as we discuss Rosalie Nathans’ story and the family’s experience of getting the Stolpersteine installed outside the old family home in Amsterdam. 

SHOW NOTES: ⁠https://www.republicofamsterdamradio.com/episodes/historyofthenetherlands/in-de-bonus-stumbling-over-reminders-of-the-holocaust-in-amsterdam

PATREON: ⁠https://www.patreon.com/historyofthenetherlands⁠

BLUESKY: ⁠https://historyofnl.bsky.social/

Music clips provided by Storyblocks:

"Minimal Documentary Background Music" by Volodymyr Piddubnyk https://www.storyblocks.com/audio/stock/minimal-documentary-background-music-skxjrbbvvketzhdzl.html

"Escaping Forever" by Michael Vignola https://www.storyblocks.com/audio/stock/escaping-forever-hog3rptosk2xlgdd7.html

"Different Universe" by Neil Cross https://www.storyblocks.com/audio/stock/different-universe-hx1qabcnuvsk0wy3bbi.html

"Documentary Corporate Marimba Background Music" by Media-Music Group https://www.storyblocks.com/audio/stock/documentary-corporate-marimba-background-music-rivttg71dkk2oc0dt.html

"Jazz Bass And Drums Solo" by Volodymyr Piddubnyk https://www.storyblocks.com/audio/stock/jazz-bass-and-drums-solo-bjj7ev19vkhjpmbps.html

"Lofi Jazz Beat (Paris Caf Version)" by The Turquoise Moon https://www.storyblocks.com/audio/stock/lofi-jazz-beat-sdve38movkgogrl4f.html

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