Helga Deen

Helga was a Jewish girl, born in 1925, in the German city of Stettin. Her father was of Dutch origin, born in Tilburg, a city in the southern part of Holland, her mother was German, born in the city of Neurenburg. In 1933 the family; father, mother, Helga and her younger brother Klaus, fled Germany to live in Tilburg, father Deen's hometown. On the 1st of June 1943 the family Deen were among the last Jews to leave Tilburg. They were taken to the nearby concentrationcamp Vught. One month later they were all transported to the Westerbork camp in the north-east of Holland. On 13th of July 1943 they were all deported to Poland. They were in the same train as Samuel, Alida, Bernard and Kitty van der Bijl.
Their destination was Sobibor. On that train were 1988 people, not one of them survived.
In Tilburg a little square, next to the synagogue, is named after her. There's also a plaque in remembrance of her. She left a little diary and some letters she wrote to her non-jewish boyfriend.


Sources:
Dit is om nooit te vergeten: diaries and letters of Helga Deen, 1943: Tilburg, 2007.
Exterminationcamp Sobibor: by Jules Schelvis: Amsterdam 1993.