Walter Süskind

Walter with his daughter Yvonne.

Walter is born in the German city of Lüdenscheid on the 29th of October 1906. His parents were Heymann Süskind, who died in 1931, and Frieda Kessler. He had two brothers, Karl and Alfred. On the 5th of June 1930 he was married to Johanna Natt (born 11-01-1906 in the German city of Giessen) in Saarbrücken and on 25th of March 1938 they fled Germany to live in the Dutch city Bergen op Zoom, together with Walter’s mother. There, one year later, their daughter Yvonne is born. In March 1942 they were forced by the German occupiers to move to Amsterdam. The original plan of the nazi’s was to concentrate all Jewish people in Amsterdam and form a ghetto there like they had one in Warsaw. This plan was abandoned at a very early stage but still all Jewish people had to move to Amsterdam. Soon after Walter and his family came to Amsterdam he was put in charge, by the Jewish Counsel, of the Hollandsche Schouwburg and the kindergarten on the other side of the street.
The Hollandsche Schouwburg (Dutch Theatre) was in fact a centre of Jewish entertainment and culture in Amsterdam but was used by the Germans as a kind of prison for Jewish people before they were taken to the Dutch camp of Westerbork. From there the trains took them directly to Auschwitz or Sobibor.
Young children were here separated from their parents and taken to the kindergarten on the opposite side of the street. This building was already a kindergarten for Jewish children before the war and was lead by Henriétte Pimentel. She stayed in charge for some time during the war. Walter, assisted by someone at administration, together with Henriëtte and some members of the kindergarten staff were able to smuggle out about 600 children and hand them over to members of the Dutch resistance movement. They took them by train, mostly to Friesland and Limburg, in the far north and far south of the Netherlands. Here they were looked after by other people of the resistance who took them to families who would take care of these children and hide them from the nazi’s. The far majority of these children survived the war. It is estimated that in total about 1.000 children were saved in this way, the majority with the help of Walter and associates, other’s were taken from their homes and handed over by their parents directly to the resistance.
In December 1943, Walter and his family were taken to Westerbork themselves. Together with Anne Frank and her family they were on the last train to leave Westerbork for Theresienstadt. After that they were taken to Auschwitz where Frieda Kessler, Johanna Natt and Yvonne Süskind died on the 25th of October 1944. Walter himself died on the 28th of Februari 1945 on one of the death-marches after the evacuation of Auschwitz.