Pre-War Jewels Returned to Jewish Heirs

Exactly 72 years after Benjamin Slager and Lena Slager-de Vries were deported to the Westerbork concentration camp in October, 1942, along with the rest of the Jews in the Dutch town of Winschoten, their heirs got back a small box of now-priceless valuables they gave to a Dutch neighbor for safekeeping. JTA reports that Els Kok, a descendent of the Jewish couple, was presented with the box, which contained a watch, locket, and several rings—and which the Dutch family had passed down with strict safekeeping instructions—during a ceremony last week at the Winschoten town hall.

Before they were marched to the local train station, the Slagers gave a box with the jewels to their next-door neighbors, the Schoenmakers. Women in the Schoenmaker family passed on the box from daughter to daughter with instructions to keep them for the Slagers.



In 2013, the last keeper, Astrid Klappe, gave the box to the Old Winschoten Society, which tracked down Kok with the assistance of a local resident, Willem Hagenbeek.

Kok reportedly said she was “happy to have something tangible” to remember her family by.