Memorial Former Quaker School Kasteel Eerde

Fourteen pupils from the Quaker School in Eerde lost their lives during the Second World War. They thought they had found a safe haven in Eerde Castle on Hammerweg in the municipality of Ommen. However, their dreams were cruelly shattered by the German invasion. Their lives ended in concentration camps.
The international Quaker School Eerde was founded in the 1930s. The school soon became a refuge for German-Jewish refugee children, who lived at the school and attended classes there. The Quakers wanted to provide education and safe shelter in the Netherlands for children who had to flee fascism in their own countries. Things turned out very differently.
In May 1940, when the German armies invaded the Netherlands, there were still almost twenty Jewish children at the school in Eerde Castle. Some went into hiding, others joined their families. A group of nine pupils remained in Eerde and responded to the call to “volunteer” for Camp Vught.

A small monument has been erected on the western bank of the moat in the castle gardens of Eerde. The monument, a memorial stone, commemorates the names of the 14 pupils of the Quaker school in Eerde who were murdered during the Second World War.
Kurt Rosenthal (12 May 1922 – 25 July 1941 Mauthausen)
Otto-Edgar Rosenstern (1 February 1922 – 18 September 1941 Mauthausen)
Steffi Pinner (11 January 1925 – 23 July 1943 Sobibor)
Ursula-Lore Bein (26 May 1925 – 24 September 1943 Auschwitz)
Bernd Leffmann (20 September 1924 – 24 September 1943 Auschwitz)
Rosemarie Oppenheimer (9 December 1924 – 24 September 1943 Auschwitz)
Klaus Metz (12 August 1922 – 5 December 1943 Auschwitz)
Walter Vohssen (5 February 1924 – 8 January 1944 Auschwitz)
Ernst Binswanger (16 August 1925 – 7 February 1944 Auschwitz)
Klaus Herzberg (25 April 1925 – 1 October 1944 Auschwitz)
Hermann Isaak (8 April 1924 – 21 January 1945 Auschwitz)
Klaus Seckel (27 November 1928 – unknown Auschwitz)
Ernst-Rudolf Reiss (12 August 1927 – 26 January 1945 Auschwitz)
Ulrich Sander (10 October 1927 – 10 June 194 Enschede)

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Source

• Text: Natuurlijk Ommen
• Photos: Mischa Rus