How can I find out about a Dutch ancestor who disappeared in WWII ?

Question

I know this one is a long-shot, but here goes. Does anyone know of a good website where I can go to start looking for my great-grandfather's brother, who was from the Netherlands?? He and his whole family mysteriously disappeared during WWII - not sure of the exact date. It is a mystery that has always bothered my family - would like to find some answers, and peace for the family, if possible. Thanks!

Answer 1

There's a wonderful group with access to all sorts of records who will do the search for free. Check out the Holocaust and War Victims Tracking Unit of the International Red Cross.

http://www.redcross.org/services/intl/ho...

Answer 2

First of all, I must ask if your Dutch great-grandfather's brother & family was Jewish?? If so, that could be the reason for their "mysterious disappearance."

   In 1939 there were some 140,000 Dutch Jews living in the Netherlands, among them some 25,000 German-Jewish refugees who had fled Germany in the 1930s. The n**i occupation force put the number of (racially) Dutch Jews in 1941 at some 154,000.  In 1945 only about 35,000 of them were still alive.

     During the first year of the occupation of the Netherlands, Jews were forced to register with the authorities and were banned from certain occupations. Starting in January, 1942, some Dutch Jews were forced to move to Amsterdam; others were directly deported to Westerbork, a concentration camp near the small village of Hooghalen which had been founded in 1939 by the Dutch government to give shelter to Jews fleeing n**i persecution, but would fulfill the function of transit camp to the n**i destruction camps in Middle and Eastern Europe during World War II.

    All non-Dutch Jews were also sent to Westerbork. Additionally, over 15,000 Jews were sent to labor camps. Deportations of Jews from the Netherlands to Poland and Germany began at June 15th of 1942 and ended at September 13th 1944. Ultimately some 101,000 Jews were deported in 98 transports from Westerbork to Auschwitz (57,800; 65 transports), Sobibor (34,313; 19 transports), Bergen-Belsen (3,724; 8 transports) and Theresienstadt (4,466; 6 transports), where most of them were murdered.

    It is said that in many cases, from arrest to deportation from Westerbork to the destruction camps in Poland and Germany, all work was done by ethnic Dutch. More than 75% of the Dutch Jewish population died between 1940-1945, with the help and support of thousands of ethnic Dutch. In Groningen, more than 90% of the Jewish population was killed; in Eindhoven, this number was just above 40%. Contrary to popular belief, Jewish survivors were met with hostility and indifference on the part of the Dutch government in the years following the Second World War.

If you would like to send me his name (my email is in my profile) , I'll do my best to find what I can. Or, like I said, if he and his family were Jewish, you could check out the site www.jewishgen.org.  They have these databases available:

1. JewishGen Family Finder (JGFF) –

A database which connects people who are searching the same ancestral towns and surnames.

2. http://www.jewishgen.org/InfoFiles--unde... the countries list,

Netherlands: has the

(a) "Netherlands Society for Jewish Genealogy" (de Nederlandse Kring voor Joodse Genealogie)

(b) Holland-America Line passenger lists, 1900-1940

and under "Topics":

Basics --— Books & Periodicals --— Cemeteries --— Genealogical Techniques-- — Genealogists --— Genetics --— Holocaust --— Immigration-- — Internet Sources-- — JewishGen Resources --— Libraries & Archives-- — Military --— Miscellaneous-- — LDS (Mormon) Resources-- — Names --— Postal Matters-- — Preservation-- — Rabbinic-- — Seminars --— Sephardim --— Social Security --— Special Interest Groups --— Translation --— Travel -- & — Vital Records  plus a LOT of others.