Overview

The story of Riwka (Bep) Schaap-Bedak follows unexpected twists and turns during the Nazi occupation of Holland and the annihilation of Dutch Jewry. Bep graduated with a law degree from Leiden University in 1940. Being Jewish herself, and supported by her classmates, she was instrumental in helping more than 100 Jews go into hiding. Her family's Turkish nationality allowed them to escape persecution until October 1943, as the Nazis were anxious not to offend the Turkish government. Bep successfully used her legal knowledge to prevent the Nazis from obtaining control of her father's movie theater in The Hague. After the confiscation in 1941 of movie theaters operated by Jews, the Bedak-run theater was the only one to remain under Jewish control until October 1943. Ultimately, Bep's campaign to save Turkish Jews from deportation failed, resulting in the murder in Auschwitz of Bep's parents at the direct instruction of Adolf Eichmann. The book, quoting letters written to Bep during WWII, explores the emotional, psychological, and religious feelings of the persecuted Jews while hiding or imprisoned in Westerbork. The author, Bep's son, puts the letters in the broader context of Jewish history.

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Reviews

Resilience, courage, and fierce determination are the words evoked in the reader's mind when reading Eli Schaap's beautifully crafted memoir recounting his mother's, Bep Schaap-Bedak's, indefatigable heroism. As a young Jewish woman during the rise of Nazism, Bep experienced and observed firsthand the decay of societal norms resulting in the destruction of European Jewry. However, Bep did not sit idly by despite enormous fear and great uncertainty. She was willing to risk her own life in order to save the lives of other Jews. Through her son's recounting of Bep's actions, we read and sense from her own words, via her letters and correspondence, the urgency she feels to make a difference for her loved ones and the collective Jewish people facing imminent threat. In times of great upheaval and in moments when humanity has lost its morality, one wonders and asks oneself what would I do and how would I behave in such a time. Through the recounting of Bep's life, my hope and wish is that more people will feel a sense of responsibility beyond oneself and stand up to do the right thing, fight for justice, and refuse to accept tyranny and despair. May we all embody Bep within ourselves and for future generations. -Rachel Fish, PhD, Special Advisor, Brandeis University President's Initiative on Antisemitism. President Boundless Israel Inc. Nothing is self-evident in times of war - least of all courage. In this remarkable book, Eli Schaap finally brings to light the resistance work of his mother, Bep Schaap-Bedak (1915-2011). As a young Jewish woman, she attempted to save the lives of around one hundred Jews in occupied Netherlands - at first protected by her Turkish nationality, and from 1943 working from Leiden with false papers and at great personal risk. After the war, she remained silent about her bravery as the past was too traumatic, having not been able to save her parents, and as she was anxious to start a new life, like other surviving Jews. Bep Bedak's story helps to correct the persistent misconception that Jews went to their deportation without resistance. Thanks to her son, her quiet heroism will be remembered by future generations. -Ronny Naftaniel, former president of the Central Jewish Board of the Netherlands, Vice-Chairman of CEJI, a Jewish contribution for an Inclusive Europe. Bep Schaap-Bedak's story during the Shoah in the Netherlands, as extensively described and meticulously documented in this book by her son Eli, provides one of those fascinating insights into the complexities of this period and into the dimension of Jewish resilience, which can be obtained only when approaching the period from the grassroots perspective. Thus, next to scholarly research on the overall picture and real-time diaries and survivors' memoirs, the genre of investigation into one personal story is a third path that illuminates aspects that get lost in the other genres. This book is a shining example of that third genre. -Professor Dan Michman, Chair, The International Institute for Holocaust Research, Incumbent of the John Najmann Chair of Holocaust Studies, Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, Israel. Professor Emeritus and former Chair of Modern Jewish History, Bar-Ilan University.

Author Information

Eli Schaap (b. 1954) has researched his mother Bep's life during the Holocaust for the last five years. He is Bep's youngest of five children. Born in The Hague, the Netherlands, he has lived in the United States for nearly 50 years. He is a Jewish identity and life researcher and the Senior Vice President of the Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life.

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