Do you know that cast iron clock on the Helper Brink in Groningen? This was a gift from the ‘King of Helpman’ who was murdered in Auschwitz

The clock at the intersection of the Verlengde Hereweg and the Helper Brink has been ticking away the hours and minutes since 1924 for the thousands of motorists, cyclists and walkers who pass the clock almost carelessly. Writer Ron van Hasselt (76) from Groningen heard as a child that the clock bears his family’s name. “That’s the Van Hasselt clock,” his father said. And indeed, if you look closely, you will see the letters ‘JE van Hasselt’s clock’ on the dial. “But he is a distant relative, the rich branch, so to speak.”

Rich entrepreneur was transported in a cattle truck

Van Hasselt wrote the book Lateral Messages, in which the history of Joseph Elias van Hasselt (1874 – 1942) is told. He was a wealthy entrepreneur who owned a large machine-knitting factory in the Helpman district. As a shareholder in a construction company, he had the Helperbad built, among other things. “He owned villas, expensive cars and was a person of high prestige.”

But this came to an end in 1942. Van Hasselt writes how he was forced from his bed by Dutch agents. ‘He had had a rich life in many respects before, less than a week after his arrest, he had to board a cattle truck on his way to ‘the East’.

He had been locked up in that wagon with his fellow sufferers for three days, until he arrived on a platform in Auschwitz in the winter cold of November 2, 1942. With the constant shouting of SS men and barking of dogs, the prisoners were led to what looked like shower rooms. They had to undress. They were murdered immediately afterwards.

“He was a Jew and slowly but surely Jews were excluded from public life. For example, he was forced to sell his shares in the Helpman Construction Company. He refused this. I think they used this as a reason to arrest him.”

Simon van Hasselt and his family were murdered in Auschwitz

Joseph van Hasselt owned, among others, Villa Insulinde on the Verlengde Hereweg and Villa Wilte in Rolde. “He lived at Verlengde Hereweg 24, where pizzeria Contini was later added. He was arrested here, so this is also where the Stolperstein will be located.”

He was not the only Van Hasselt who did not return from the camps. Joseph Elias was the eldest born in a family that ultimately had six children, three boys and three girls. Of these children, only one would survive the Holocaust. Ron van Hasselt’s immediate family was also deported to the extermination camps. “One of my uncles was Simon van Hasselt, after whom a school was later named.”

The photo that an unknown photographer took of this Jewish teacher with his daughter Sophia on the Hereplein in Groningen in 1942 is burned into the collective memory. Both wear a Star of David. Both were murdered in a concentration camp.

Ron van Hasselt’s parents survived the war. Ben van Hasselt was a teacher and fled to England in the May days of 1940. He became a lieutenant colonel and was the first Dutch soldier to return to the liberated Netherlands.

‘I knew ‘being a Jew’ was a bit scary’

In the family in which Ron van Hasselt grew up, the war was not often discussed. He writes about this in his latest book. ‘I knew that my uncle Jaap and aunt Lies had lost both their daughters. I knew that there was a school named after my uncle Simon, who was murdered with his entire family in Auschwitz. I knew that Uncle Henri and Aunt Jet had not made it. I knew that my grandmother had been deported to Sobibor. I knew that being a Jew was a bit scary because you could be persecuted. I didn’t know exactly how it all worked, and I also had the feeling that I wasn’t allowed to touch it. After all, that was my parents’ property, those were the memories of Uncle Jaap and Aunt Lies. It wasn’t mine.’

But this changed after the death of his parents. He became part of their history through his books. “I will never know what exactly my parents and relatives went through. I wasn’t there, I don’t have those experiences. But I can imagine it. Perhaps one that does not correspond to their experiences, but a performance nonetheless.”

Disclosure

The unveiling of Stolpersteine ​​in the municipality of Groningen was made possible by the Stolpersteine ​​Groningen foundation. This was established at the end of 2021 to coordinate applications within the municipality of Groningen and to help the initiators with the application and placing the stones. More information can be found at www.stolpersteinegroningen.nl.

The book Zijdelingsche Berichten (Publisher Koninklijke van Gorcum in Assen) by Ron van Hasselt will be available in stores from April 7.