"Tweeëntwintig letters;
Hij tekende ze,
Hiew ze uit en louterde ze,
Hij woog ze,
En verwisselde ze met elkaar:
Allemaal, en stuk voor stuk;
Hij vormde door middel van hen
De gehele schepping
En al wat geschapen moest worden." - Sefer Jetsira
Geluk is een dagelijkse beslissing...
Ik heb zeven levens gehad. - Franziska Rogmans - Kreiter
You are responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. You are responsible for your rose.
Het is het eindpunt van de trein, bijna geen mens hoeft er te zijn, bijna geen hond gaat zover mee: Enschede.
On a freezing cold Sunday afternoon in February, we buried our eldest Soror (102). With we, I mean our now defunct Pronaos Ankh, once in Hengelo (O).It was a remarkable event. I’d never buried a person on a Sunday before. I’d never attended a Jewish funeral service to begin with. It was on the very day of the 75th anniversary of AMORC’s establishment in the Netherlands (1 February 1934 - 2009), but most of all since she was such a remarkable person. Franziska Rogmans born Kreiter.
It was a sober though powerful ceremony in the so-called Metaheer house of the Jewish cemetary in Enschede. Franziska was born on July 14th, 1906 in Lemberg in the Kingdom of Galicia, well officially. Fleeing during chaotic and desperate wartime conditions Franziska's birthdate was registered as 14 July 1906. Because of missing documents that henceforth remained her birthhdate. She simply couldn't prove that her true and correct birthdate was 15 April 1906!
Note that the city of Lvov has also been known as "Lemberg, Austria" (before 1918); it was called "Lwów, Poland" (1918-1939); known as "L'vov, U.S.S.R." (1945-1991); and is now called "Lviv, Ukraine" (1991 to present). Once holding over 120,000 Jews, killings and deportations to death camps reduced the population to less than 200 by the end of the war.
It was a sober though powerful ceremony in the so-called Metaheer house of the Jewish cemetary in Enschede. Franziska was born on July 14th, 1906 in Lemberg in the Kingdom of Galicia, well officially. Fleeing during chaotic and desperate wartime conditions Franziska's birthdate was registered as 14 July 1906. Because of missing documents that henceforth remained her birthhdate. She simply couldn't prove that her true and correct birthdate was 15 April 1906!
Note that the city of Lvov has also been known as "Lemberg, Austria" (before 1918); it was called "Lwów, Poland" (1918-1939); known as "L'vov, U.S.S.R." (1945-1991); and is now called "Lviv, Ukraine" (1991 to present). Once holding over 120,000 Jews, killings and deportations to death camps reduced the population to less than 200 by the end of the war.
It’s not surprising therefore that the family with a precognition of the impending ordeal perhaps, moved away from Lemberg onwards to Vienna, Austria later to Bratlislava. The all took us for Austrians, who didn't want to work for the Nazis!
Franziska like her father was a violinist. The violin kept her going even during the darkest hours of her life. So dark they were at times, that even 50years later she simply refused talking about it. No we had to understand she couldn’t , that she just coulnd’t tell us everything.
Franziska played in the "Overijssels Philharmonisch Orkest" now the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra. She also was a music teacher and personal coach.
The war almost still got her on 3 March 1945 during the bombing of the Zuidenhout district in The Hague, from which she miraculously escaped.
In the Second World War German V-2 rockets were stationed in the park just north to this district, called Haagse Bos. On 3 March 1945 the allies attempted to destroy V-2s and launching equipment by a large-scale bombardment, but due to navigational errors the Bezuidenhout was destroyed; 500 people were killed, 2000 were injured, and several thousands were made homeless, just two months before the liberation.
Shortly aferwards she was almost caught and her head shaven by the resistance as a German collaborator. A blond haired Jewess with a strong German accent!
1949 she married the violinist Louis Rogmans, who brought with him two children from an earlier marriage and who died in 1968.
I didn’t get to know Franziska until the last decade of her life. When I was to pick her up I expected an old lady in a wheelchair, but in stead I saw an elderly lady, petite, very elegant with an extraordinary energy. When she turned 100, a friend of mine wanted to visit her. Yes OK but not now, I first have to go to Amsterdam! Franziska: In my youth I used to be the weakest one. A real problem child.
Her recipe for a long life: lots of vegetables with little meat.
At her funeral service two older gentlemen claimed with pride: I was her student. She was a very good teacher. When you were not that good, she was very mild, but when you were good she pushed you to next level.
Dearest Soror Franziska, Schalom, Piece be unto you…
Sunday 13 September 13th, 2009. The unveiling of the tomb ceremony.
The unveiling is a ceremony that dedicates a grave monument erected for someone who passed away earlier.
The service is called "unveiling" because the tombstone is covered with a cloth, which is removed by the family during the ceremony.
There is no religious obligation to hold an unveiling ceremony, but the ritual became popular toward the end of the 19th century in America and Western Europe and has become an accepted and meaningful practice. In addition to dedicating the grave monument, the unveiling gives those in mourning an opportunity to commemorate the deceased. In a sense, through the unveiling, the memory of a person's life is etched permanently into the collective memory of the Jewish community.
The unveiling ceremony was followed by a commemorative concert for Franziska Rogmans in the synagogue of Enschede, which after its restauration ranks as one of the finest in Europe.
Ben Ali Libi
Op een lijst van artiesten, in de oorlog vermoord,
staat een naam waarvan ik nog nooit had gehoord,
dus keek ik er met verwondering naar:
Ben Ali Libi. Goochelaar.
Met een lach en een smoes en een goocheldoos
en een alibi dat-ie zorgvuldig koos,
scharrelde hij de kost bij elkaar:
Ben Ali Libi, de goochelaar.
Toen vonden de vrienden van de Weduwe Rost
dat Nederland nodig moest worden verlost
van het wereldwijd joods-bosjewistisch gevaar.
Ze bedoelden natuurlijk die goochelaar.
Wie zo dikwijls een duif of een bloem had verstopt,
kon zichzelf niet verstoppen, toen er hard werd geklopt.
Er stond al een overvalwagen klaar
voor Ben Ali Libi, de goochelaar.
In 't concentratiekamp heeft hij misschien
zijn aardigste trucs nog wel eens laten zien
met een lach en een smoes, een misleidend gebaar,
Ben Ali Libi, de goochelaar.
En altijd als ik een schreeuwer zie
met een alternatief voor de democratie,
denk ik: jouw paradijs, hoeveel ruimte is daar
voor Ben Ali Libi, de goochelaar.
Voor Ben Ali Libi, de kleine schlemiel,
hij ruste in vrede, God hebbe zijn ziel.
Willem Wilmink
