Number 13: Reflected in the photographs here are my mother, Marcelle “Cella” Schkolne nee a’ Cohen Treves with her two sisters: Margaretha (“Aunty Greta”) and Katy – As children and then as adults.

Their parents are reflected in two photographs – one as a young couple and the other some years later. Jacob (“Jaap”) a’ Cohen Treves and Sophia (“Phie”) Olman were married in 5682 on Elul 14, alternatively 7 September 1922, in Amsterdam, Holland.

Their parents, who accompanied them to South Africa when they emigrated in 1929, and stayed in Cape Town with them in Hollandia flats in Wynberg for over a year before returning to Amsterdam, are reflected in the first photograph: Moses a’ Cohen Treves was born in Amsterdam 5 July 1874 and perished in the Theresienstadt Concentration Camp on 12 July 1944, and Grietje Vigevano born in Amsterdam on 26 September 1872, died on 17 June 1943. Grietje died of cancer the day before the rest of her family in Amsterdam were rounded up by the Nazis and taken to the Concentration and later Death Camps. There was only one person left to bury her: Jaap a’ Cohen the first cousin of Marcelle’s father. (Jaap (whose name was the same as Marcelle’s father!) was the husband of Tonnie and the parents of Ems who Marcelle spoke about as a Cousin in Holland that did not perish in the Holocaust).

Grietje was buried in Beth Haim of Ouderkerk:   “Beth Haim is the oldest Jewish cemetery in the Netherlands. It was purchased for use as a burying ground by the Jewish community of Amsterdam in 1614 and is located in the village of Ouderkerk aan de Amstel, in the countryside near Amsterdam”. So many of our Dutch family through the generations are buried in this cemetery.    Raymond and Sheryl visited Beth Haim Cemetery and family graves there, in June 1985 with Aunty “Jannie” (Marianna), Jaap a’ Cohen’s (Raymond and David’s grandfather’s) sister who survived the Nazi Concentration Camps and her daughter Margreet “Greet” (pronounced Chrayt with the Ch as in the Hebrew Chet).