In the 1930s, Maastricht became a haven for Jews from Germany. One of them was Yitzhak Nir, born in 1927 in Kraków. He suffered a severe hip infection as a child, and his parents moved to Germany for better medical care. He underwent treatments in Essen, but after Hitler’s rise to power in 1933, life became increasingly difficult for Jews. The family decided to flee Germany and found a temporary safe haven in Maastricht.
The Jewish community there was small with about 60 families. There was no permanent rabbi, and daily synagogue services could only take place thanks to Jewish refugees from Germany, who made sure there were enough men for a minyan.
At the Catholic school, Yitzhak had to adapt. When he asked to be given time off on Shabbat and Jewish holidays, the school headmaster looked at him in surprise. ‘Why don’t you want to go to school on Saturdays?’ he asked. It was the first time he had a Jewish student with such a request. Nevertheless, Yitzhak was left alone and allowed to stay home on religious days.
On 10 May 1940, Maastricht was occupied by the Germans. Little changed at first, but anti-Jewish measures soon followed. In November 1942, his family was rounded up and sent to camp Westerbork. In March 1943, Yitzhak received a postcard his parents had thrown from the train. They wrote that they were being sent ‘to the east’. Thanks to ‘Arie’ from the resistance, Yitzhak went into hiding in several Limburg villages. First with a Calvinist family in Treebeek, which protected him out of religious conviction. Later with a miner’s family. In their house, a hiding place was made under the floor for emergencies. He once heard his hiding mother tell a neighbour, ‘No way, nobody lives extra in our house.’ That lie saved his life.
In August 1944, Yitzhak saw German soldiers fleeing in panic. On 18 September 1944, during Rosh Hashanah, he heard that Maastricht had been liberated. After more than two years in hiding, he was finally able to get out.
Yitzhak returned to Maastricht but none of his family had survived the war. He tried to rebuild his life but did not feel at home anywhere. In 1946, he joined the Zionist movement and left illegally for Palestine to build a new life. For years, he sent Dates from Israel at Christmas to the families who hid him.
Nir’s parents and brother (surname B
uttereig) were murdered in Auschwitz on 26 February 1943.
