Performance RAZZIA

Theater producer Godfried Beumers plays the performance 'RAZZIA' on November 17, 18 and 19, together with Kelvin Klaassen and Veerle van Horssen. His text is based on a book by Fritz Tauber, an Austrian Jew who lived in Nijmegen, was arrested during the razzia of Nov. 17-18, 1942, and survived World War II.

The performances (start at 8 p.m.) are in the auditorium of the Stedelijk Gymnasium on Kronenburgersingel, right next to the then Municipal HBS, where the Jews were gathered that night.

Playwright Godfried Beumers

This year, Nijmegen theater maker Godfried Beumers (70) will have been in the business for 50 years. In August he would be on stage for the last time with "Necessity," a performance about his great passion: theater making. Then it was over, over and out.

Photo: Erik van 't Hullenaar

But then comes that one question: whether he will do a play about the Nijmegen raid of November 17-18, 1942. Beumers immersed himself in the subject and couldn't get away from it.

"This horrific event was completely unknown to me." Beumers immersed himself in the history, partly through Frank Eliëns' book "For Jews Forbidden. He read it out in three days. The people, their stories, their faces. They got under his skin. Then his mind is made up: "There are stories that must be told, and this one had to be."

Fritz Tauber

The book 'Rondom Westerbork' by Fritz Tauber is the common thread in the performance 'RAZZIA' by Godfried Beumers. Fritz Tauber (1906-2004) was an Austrian Jew who fled Nazism in 1938 and found work at Smit Transformers in Nijmegen. He and his wife Helene Tauber-Büks were rounded up during the great razzia of November 17-18, 1942 and taken to Westerbork. The director of Smit manages to get them released: he cites Tauber's indispensability in the production of transformers. Fritz and Helene went into hiding and survived World War II. In his book, Tauber testifies about the raid in Nijmegen and the time afterwards in transit camp Westerbork.

Footsteps

"I remember with terrible clarity, how the footsteps came closer and closer to our bedroom and how by crawling under the covers, holding my breath, I tried to delay, postpone the dreaded moment. My heart beat in my throat, when without further ado the bedroom door was opened and the light turned on. With a rough 'Get up and come with me' we were greeted."

Fritz and Helene were transferred to the Municipal HBS on Kronenburgersingel, which served as an assembly point.

"About four o'clock in the morning all the victims were gathered, nearly 200 young and old, poor and rich, humble and seen, able and incompetent people, all indiscriminately in deep misery and despair."

"We were locked in three passenger cars. Each door was guarded by an officer. Exhausted, we dropped onto the benches, not knowing the purpose of our journey. Westerbork, Vught, Germany or Poland? No one knew where to go. Unnoticed, morning twilight had turned into a light November day.

Life at the station took its usual course, people came and went, trains arrived and departed. No place gives the illusion of freedom more than a train station: in all directions the rails crawl, expanding, branching, rejoining, a spider's web woven of steel, traversing the globe. On all these rods the trains ride off into the distance, towards freedom. We were at a dead end and so were our lives."

Performance in Stedelijk Gymnasium Godfrey

Beumers deliberately chose the Stedelijk Gymnasium as the location for his performance "RAZZIA. "Right next to this spot was the Municipal HBS at the time. Here the Jews were gathered to walk on the next morning, via Stieltjesstraat, to the station. There a train was waiting, a normal train that went north according to the timetable. The people in the rear carriages were ordinary passengers and had no idea what was happening in the front carriages, specially cleared for the Jews. Unbelievable anyway. So yes, this place had to be it. How close can you get?"

Date and Commencement | do 17, Fri 18 and Sat 19 Nov, 20:00
Location | Stedelijk Gymnasium, Kronenburgersingel 269
Cast | Godfried Beumers, Kelvin Klaassen, Veerle van Horssen
Entrance | € 15.00 (no discounts possible)
Tickets | https://shop.ikbenaanwezig.nl/tickets/event/razzia

Publications Jewish persecution Nijmegen

• The book "Around Westerbork" will be republished in November by the Stichting Stolpersteine Nijmegen, now under the title "Months of Fear and Horror; Eyewitness Account - Nijmegen, Westerbork, Amsterdam, Rotsterhaule 1942-1943.
• The book 'For Jews Prohibited. How the Jewish community disappeared from Nijmegen 1940-1945' by Frank Eliëns brings together the hundreds of Nijmegen victims of the persecution of the Jews and gives them a face in personal stories of anger, despair, disbelief, unfathomable sorrow, but sometimes also of happiness and hope in dark days. As much as possible, photographs of these people are also printed. Eliëns, a policy official at the municipality of Nijmegen, worked for years on his book. It was published in April 2021.