Date of birth:

October 13th, 1917 (Amsterdam, the Netherlands)

Date of death:

February 17th, 1986 (Den Bosch, the Netherlands)

Nationality:

Dutch

Raphaël Ensel, called Felix by his family, was the eldest son of David Ensel and Esther Ensel - Kool.

He married Catholic Maria Clementina ‘Clemence’ Jansen from Belgium on 24 February 1937. Before the war, Clemence worked as a servant for the Dutch Jewish Wolfsbergen family who had moved to Brussels in 1933. When the Wolfsbergen family moved back to Amsterdam in 1936, she went with them. In Amsterdam, she also worked for the Jewish families Meijers and Emmerik. Felix earned his living as a butcher's boy in Aäron Wolf's butcher's shop at 32 Swammerdamstraat. His income was very welcome in a large family that eventually numbered 11 children. Health problems often prevented his father from finding work, and it was often difficult for the family to make ends meet.

After their marriage in February 1937, Felix and Clemence moved to Oostham, Belgium. In 1938, Felix converted to Catholicism.

In late 1941, Felix found a package of flight journals dropped by a British plane. The leaflets contained pictures of the mass grave in Katyn (Poland), explaining what the Nazis had done there in April/May 1940. It was only after the war that it became known that this had been the work of the Russians. Felix distributed the leaflets to people he trusted. Yet a few days later, Felix had to report to the German Feldgendermerie where he was accused of spreading anti-German propaganda. Fortunately, his German brother-in-law came to his rescue and Felix was released. This freedom was short-lived, as the next day he had to report again. This time, an officer from the Waffen-SS was present at his interrogation. Felix was again accused of spreading anti-German propaganda and, according to his interrogators, Felix was a ‘’dirty Jew‘’. Despite Felix's insistence on being a Catholic, he was severely mistreated. From this mistreatment, Felix suffered physically, and probably mentally, for the rest of his life. From 2 December 1941, Felix stayed in the prisons of Merksplas, Sint-Truiden and Vorst. When a German officer was shot dead in Brussels, Felix was chosen along with several other prisoners to be executed in retaliation. Fortunately, the Germans' plans changed and Felix was eventually released on 15 May 1942.

In 1985, Felix was included in the Register of Bearers of the Resistance Cross for his deed during World War II.

Felix died on 17 February 1986 at the age of 68 in ‘s-Hertogenbosch. His wife Clemence died on 13 August 1987 in Zevenaar. She reached the respectable age of 80.

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• - HEUVEL, C.C. VAN DEN e.a., Verzetsherdenkingskruis, Samsom Uitgeverij, 1985.