Cycling route Death Valley De Peel - A treacherous murder (#30)

A treacherous murder

Erwin Michael Joseph lived in Berlin, together with mother Elly Glogau and father Kurt Joseph. After Kristallnacht in 1938 - when Hitler was in power - Kurt committed suicide. Elly remarried Heinz Graumann and they fled to Amsterdam. During the war it also became too dangerous there. The Graumann's, together with the artist couple Heppner and their son Max, fled again. They ended up in Vlierden via human smugglers. Not far from here, things went horribly wrong on September 16, 1942. The human smugglers Henk Brandhorst and José Peerbooms would smuggle the two Jewish families across the Dutch-Belgian border in a tanker for a fee of 10,000 guilders. However, for unclear reasons - perhaps fear of discovery - 'the Jewish helpers' decided to get rid of their refugees in a different way. They wanted to get rid of all six of them.
They took Erwin Michael Joseph first and killed him in the woods. The next day they suddenly had a hiding place for the five other Jewish people in hiding. With Harrie Janssen in the Zeilbergse Voorpeel, the refugees sat out the war, soon realizing that Erwin had been murdered. Devastated, they continued to live with Janssen until 1945. Traitor José Peerbooms was liquidated by the resistance during the war. Henk Brandhorst was sentenced to six years in prison when he was tried in 1946. Erwin's remains were reburied at the Protestant cemetery in Deurne.

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Source

• Text: TracesOfWar
• Photos: Martin Damen