Stumbling Stones Anna van Burenlaan 48

STOLPERSTEINE / STUMBLING STONES
for
Willem Culp (born 1907, deported 23.9.1942 from Drancy, murdered 26.9.1942 Auschwitz)
Betty Culp-Woudhuijsen (born 1913, deported 23.9.1942 from Drancy, murdered 26.9.1942 Auschwitz)

The German artist Gunter Demnig started placing the first Stolpersteine in 1997 in the Berlin's Kreuzberg district.
Meanwhile there are Stolpersteine in many countries.
It reminds the Holocaust in World War II.
A Stolperstein is a concrete stone of 10 x 10cm, with a brass plate on top, in which the name, date of birth and decease and also place of decease is punched into.
The Stolperstein gets a place in the pavement in front of the former house of the victim.
By doing this, Gunter Demnig gives a private memorial to each victim.
His motto is: 'A HUMAN BEING IS FORGOTTEN ONLY WHEN HIS OR HER NAME IS FORGOTTEN'.

Borne was the first town in the Netherlands in which Stolpersteine were placed.
This happened the 29-11-2007.

William Culp
February 28th, 1907 (Utrecht) - September 26th, 1942 (Auschwitz)

Willem Culp was born on February 28, 1907 in the Parkstraat in Utrecht. He was the son of shopkeeper Richard Egon Culp and his wife Hedwig Ostwald. Father Richard Egon was an immigrant from Elberfeld and his mother was born in Salzkotten, just like Elberfeld, a place in the German North Rhine-Westphalia. Before Utrecht, the family had already lived in Rotterdam, where the older son Hans (Hans Julius) was born in 1904, and afterwards lived at various addresses in Amsterdam. Around 1916 it was noted that mother Hedwig was a seamstress, which reinforces the assumption that her husband was also active in the textile industry. Son Willem joined this tradition because in 1927, during the examination for military service, he appears to have obtained a diploma from the trade school and to be active as an employee in purchasing and sales for a ladies' clothing store. At that time he still lived with his parents in the Van Breestraat in Amsterdam.

In 1935 Willem Culp married Betty Woudhuijsen in Amsterdam. In those years he is referred to as a traveling salesman and representative in ladies' clothing. In January 1939, the young couple moved from Amsterdam to 48 Anna van Burenlaan in Haarlem. In 1941/42 a trade in industrial clothing by W. Culp was mentioned there in the Address Book of Haarlem.

In August 1942, the police commissioner in Haarlem requested information that could lead to the detection, arrest and arraignment of Willem Culp and his wife Betty Culp-Woudhuijsen. Apparently they had left their house on the Anna van Burenlaan by then. Their names on the list of prisoners in Belfort in France, near the Swiss border, make it clear that they attempted to escape persecution and deportation by reaching neutral Switzerland via France, but were unsuccessful. From Belfort they were transferred to the French transit camp Drancy near Paris and from there on September 23, 1942 deported to Auschwitz. Willem Culp was killed there on September 26.

Transport from Drancy (France) 23 September 1942.
Died in Auschwitz on September 26, 1942.

He was 35 years old.

Betty Culp-Woudhuijsen
March 31, 1913 (Amsterdam) - September 26, 1942 (Auschwitz)

Betty Woudhuijsen was born on March 31, 1913 in Amsterdam as the daughter of Klara Asser and the office clerk Daniel Meijer Woudhuijsen. A few years later, in December 1917, her brother Daniel was born. Rebecca Schenkkan, Klara's mother, lived with the family.

Not much is known about her childhood, but on November 27, 1935, Betty married 28-year-old Willem Culp, a traveling salesman and representative of women's ready-to-wear. A few years later, in January 1939, the couple moved to Anna van Burenlaan 48, where her husband was the manager of a business clothing company. They had no children.

Together with her husband and her parents living in Amsterdam, Betty must have decided in 1942 not to wait any further for developments in the Netherlands and the four of them made an attempt to reach neutral Switzerland. That attempt failed because they were arrested in France and transferred to the prison in the town of Belfort, which is close to the Swiss border. Presumably nearby Delle was their target because that was where many refugees tried to cross the border. From Belfort, Betty, her husband Willem Culp, and her parents were taken to the French transit camp Drancy near Paris, where they were deported to Auschwitz on 23 September 1942. A few days later, all four were killed in Auschwitz.

Transport from Drancy (France) 23 September 1942.
Died in Auschwitz on September 26, 1942.

She was 29 years old.