Flori Asher Tal

MAIL: hila479@walla.com , shacharspringer@walla.com

Survivor: Code: RelatioNet FL AS 19 AM HO

Family Name: Asher

Previous Family Name: Tal

First Name: Flori

Father Name: Felix

Mother Name: Margaret

Brother Name: Willy

Date of birth: 1919

Country ofbirth: Holand

City of Birth: Amsterdam

Flori Asher's Memories

Flori Asher was born as Flori Tal, in 1919 in Amsterdam the capital of the Netherlands.
Flori was the first born child of Margaret (1898) and Felix (1896). In 1921 Willy, Flori's brother was born. Flori's family was small and traditional. The atmosphere in her house was warm, cozy and supportive. At the age of 10, Flori met her future husband, Elli Asher.

Flori studied at all-girls' elementary school and high school. In her Academic studies, she studied Education and Phycology. During her teen-age years, Flori took part in a youth movement – Brit Ha'Halutzim Ha'Dati'im. This movement had the same values as Kibutz values. As a part of her participation there, Flori was qualified to immigrate to Israel. The qualification included physical and mental challenges as well as Hebrew lessons. Anyone who wanted to immigrate to Israel had to pass this training and show the management of the youth movement that he was willing to do anything in order to perform an Aliya.
At the age of 19, Flori worked as a house-keeper in an orphanage of the movement for Jewish German children who were sent to Holland from Germany.
During her activity in the movement, she met Elli and they became a couple. At that time Elli studied engineering and served a mandatory service in the Dutch army. Elli's family was very famous in Netherlands - his mother was a well-known writer and his father, who died prematurely, was a famous Rabbi.

In august 1940, when Flori was 21, the Germans invaded Holland. The Dutch army, with Elli in it, fought against the Germans for only five days. Afterwards they weren't able to fight any longer, so they had to withdraw and the Germans got into Holland.
Flori was very scared and was worried that something will happen to her family or to Elli. At that time, Flori spent most of her time with her family and worked hard in her house.
The Germans didn’t impose immediately their harsh decrees towards the Jews. So at first, Flori thought that nothing would change and that the Germans didn't threat her daily living.
But in October 1940 the decrees started: the Jews weren't allowed to travel by train or tram. The Jews weren't allowed to get into coffee houses or visit the theater and the Jews had to deliver to the German regime their property. In addition, the Jews weren't allowed to get outside of their houses after eight p.m. At that time, Flori worked as a kindergarten teacher and Elli worked as an engineer.  During her work as a kindergarten teacher, she and the children got the yellow patch. The children were very excited to get the yellow star, because they didn’t understand its true meaning. One morning when Flori arrived to the kindergarten, she realized that the kindergarten was empty and none of the children were there. They were all taken by the Nazis.

In 1942 Flori and her family were taken to the ghetto in Amsterdam. 
Before their entering the ghetto, Flori and Elli decided to get married, that no matter what might happen in the future, they would always be together. Flori's mother, Margaret insisted to run the wedding and to have a pure celebration like there was no war in Netherlands. They had a very low budget for the ceremony: Flori bought the fabric for her dress in a few pennies and her mother sewed her wedding dress, Elli bought a cylinder and a bouquet for the Huppa. On June 14th 1942, Flori and Elli got married. They arrived to the ceremony in a carriage drawn by white horses. The celebration was perfect, full of joy and happiness.

A few months after the wedding, Flori, Elli and Flori's family had entered the ghetto. The life in the ghetto was very difficult. Every day more and more people were taken by the Germans and no one knew who would be taken next. One day, while they were in the ghetto, the herald announced that everyone had to get out of their houses. In front of Flori's house parked a Red Cross vehicle. The driver came to rescue a Jewish family from the ghetto. At that time in Holland, many Dutch people paid to the Red Cross to save and take their Jewish friends or neighbors out of the Ghetto. The Red Cross' driver searched the family he came for, but he didn’t find them. Suddenly, a brilliant idea came to Flori's mind. She yelled to the driver "I need to have a miscarriage outside of the Ghetto! You came for me!" The driver, that didn’t find the family he came for, gave Flori and Elli a ride outside the Ghetto. That lie saved Flori and Elli's lives. Otherwise they would have arrived to Auschwitz in the next transporter. At the entrance of the Ghetto there were many German soldiers, Flori said to the driver to honk strongly. All the Germans stepped aside to let the Jews, Flori an Elli, run away from the Ghetto.

Now that they were out of the ghetto, Flori and Elli wondered where to go. Flori remembered a nice Jewish family, from her youth movement who had owned papers and documents proving that they're from Turkey and they're not Jewish. Flori thought that maybe she and Elli would be able to hide in their house. She and Elli walked for three days to the family's house.

When they arrived, the family told them that they couldn’t hide them, but they should go to one of the empty houses down the street and they would bring them food and blankets. Flori and Elli were hopeless, they did not know where to go and where to hide.
Elli, who was a Dutch soldier, knew that if he arrived to the Dutch soldiers' prison he would have a chance to survive. He drove to the Dutch soldiers' concentration camp wearing his Dutch uniforms. He didn’t forge documents that hid the fact that he was Jewish. In the reception to the camp he showed his certificate and hid with his finger his family name that no one would discover the fact that he was Jewish. When he was in the camp, he took his certificate and ate it and swallowed so that there would be no proof of his religious sources.

Life in the camp was very difficult, physically and mentally.
The separation from Elli was terrible for Flori. They didn’t see each other for two years and neither of them knew the other's fate.

When Elli arrived to the soldiers' camp, Flori turned to her non-Jewish friend, who was a nurse, to help her. Her friend gave her nurse uniforms, her documents and her identity. Throughout the war, wherever she arrived, Flori used her friend's identity and name – Else.

With her new identity, Flori went to the village Groningen. In this village there was a large and organized group of people who wanted to help the Jews during their struggle. For example, during this period it was nearly impossible to get food in Holland. In order to buy food, instead of money there were tickets. According to the number of tickets you had, you got a limited amount of food – one loaf of bread, one cheese etc.… The group used extra tickets for the hiding Jews, so they could eat as well. As a part of this organization, the Jews were sent to different families that were able to hide Jews across the region. Throughout the war, Flori stayed with 17 different families. Flori always tried to make the life with her the easiest for the families she lived with. She always attempted to make the family members happy and comfortable with her stay.

The first family that Flori stayed with was very kind.
The husband was a psychiatrist and because of that the house was always full of                                                                                                                                                                                             people. The family was worried that someone would see Flori, so they hid her in the closet. In the evenings, Flori got out of her hiding place and helped cooking. It was difficult for the family to have Flori so she always tried to be as kind and polite as she could. Flori stayed with this family for a short time and later moved to the neighbors' house, the second family. The neighbor's son, Wieve, was in the organization that helped Jews. He brought Flori all the addresses of the hiding places she needed and escorted her from place to place.

With Wieve as her companion, Flori moved to the next family.
The third family Flori stayed with included a couple and the husband's three nephews. This family had very strict discipline and orders were on top of their priorities. The family was extremely frightened that Flori would be discovered, so they disassembled their parquet and Flori hid under the floor during the days. They brought her food, water and a blanket, because it was very cold underneath the floor. At nights they let her come out and drink a cup of tea. She hid there for two months, and when she couldn't bear to live that way any longer, Wieve transferred her to a different family.

 The fourth family was a young couple and their two children. Flori soon found out that another girl hid in their house. Her name was Ilzy Ruth and she came from Germany. Flori and Ilzy hid in the attic. During Flori's stay, she arranged a birthday party for the landlady in order to make the family happy even though these were difficult times. After a month the family had to move to Amsterdam, so Flori, Ilzy and Wieve rode on bicycles to their next hiding place.

The fifth hiding place was at a woman's house. She lived alone in a remote village. Flori and Ilzy lived in separate rooms until one day a friend of the hosting woman arrived to live there. Flori and Ilzy had to move to a small and crowded room with only one bed. They weren't allowed to leave the room, not even in order to go to the bathroom. When Flori and Ilzy left this house, their ways separated.

The sixth Family lived in the same village and included a newly-wed catholic couple. The couple was very nice and welcoming. A special bond was created between Flori and the couple. They showed her their wedding outfits and even held together a dancing party. Flori hid there for a very short time , only a week and a half.

In the seventh family that Flori stayed with, the atmosphere was bizarre. The relationship between the husband and wife who hosted her was problematic and unhealthy. Their son was a soldier in the Indonesia's army and even though he was alive, the wife treated him as if he were dead. While Flori stayed there, she cooked, cleaned and handled the household. One day the husband went out for groceries. Flori stayed alone with the wife. Suddenly, the wife panicked. She was so hysterical that she wanted to jump out the window and commit suicide. Flori, with great resourcefulness managed to dissuade the woman from her panic and to calm her down.  After this incident, Flori was afraid to stay because of the wife's unexpected behavior. Flori was worried that the woman might turn her in to the Germans or perhaps she would try committing suicide again and Flori would be accused of her death. Therefore, Flori sent a letter to Wieve's mother saying she was afraid to stay there. She left the family and returned to live with Wieve's family for a short period.

The eighth family's husband was a dermatologist. Therefore, the house was always full with patients. Flori couldn't walk freely around. So, once again, Flori found herself hidden under the floor. Flori didn't have a good bond with the family members. She felt lonely and worried about Elli and her family.

The ninth family lived in far distance from the eighth family's house. The family included a well-known priest, his wife and their children. Flori's sister-in-law, Sofia, lived in this house before Flori. Sofia told Flori that the priest was interested in Flori's looks – if she's pretty or carved. Flori had a good relationship with the priest's wife. She spent a lot of time with her, while taking care of the children. When people arrived to the house, Flori hid in the closet.
During her stay, the priest's behavior to Flori was inappropriate. She felt uncomfortable with the way he treated her.
One day, Elli's brother, Meir, who also hid in the same area, met Flori in the front yard of the house. The priest stopped the meeting because he was afraid that something was going on between Flori and Meir. Therefore, Flori wasn't allowed to see him anymore. After a short time Flori discovered that Meir was reported to the authorities by a young Dutch. Because Meir did not want to be tortured and to reveal where his family was hidden, he attempted suicide in prison, but was unsuccessful. Then, he was sent to Auschwitz where he perished.

His death was very hard for Flori. She and the priest's family knew she had to move out of the house because she might be revealed.

The tenth place where Flori hid was in a little house whose owner lived alone, nearby the priest's home. The landlord was very kind to Flori, he took care of her and gave her food.
Every now and then, the priest came to see Flori. He gave her books so she would have a way to spend her time in a worthwhile way.
A week after Flori came to this house, her sister-in-law came to hide there too. They both missed each other, so they were thrilled to be together again. Seeing her sister-in-law again gave Flori a feeling of security and hope. But, the house turned to be very crowded and impossible to live in. Flori had to leave Sofia and go hide somewhere else. From this moment on, until the end of the war, Flori didn't hear from Sofia.

The eleventh family which hosted Flori was a family of a veterinarian. It was a good respectable family which gave Flori a pleasant feeling of freedom when she lived with them. Even though Flori liked living with this family, they couldn't hide her for long and after two weeks Flori moved to the next place, to the next family.

By now, this was Flori's twelfth family. From all the places she had been, this family was the kindest. In this house, Flori felt a part of the family. The house was next to a little town called Groningen. The Christian family included two parents and their seven children. A few of the eldest children weren’t living with the family, but they came to visit from time to time. They all knew Flori and were friendly to her.

Flori shared a room with the youngest daughter – Clorotha. She and Flori kept writing to each other after the war and they even met when Clorotha came to visit Flori in Israel. The Family treated Flori as is she was their own. When they all got allowance every two weeks, they gave Flori money too (even though she had nothing to buy with the money). After a year or so, one of the family's children who had a mental handicap got killed by a German soldier. Flori had to leave the family and move to the next one with great sadness.

The thirteenth place where Flori hid was at a couple of a florists' house. The couple lived next door to the previous family. The husband made Flori feel very uncomfortable, he was treating her in a very inappropriate way.
Flori couldn't bear this man any more, and returned to the previous family. A short time after she returned, Flori heard the priest coming to tell the family that the Germans were coming to town to take all Jews. Flori didn't want to put the family in such a risk and she ran away that night.

Wandering at night in the cold dark streets, Flori came across a church in the middle of a little forest. For a few hours Flori sat in the Church's basement until she decided to go upstairs, to the Church itself. When she saw the priest's stand she noticed a bible. She stood behind the stand and started reading out loud, praying like there was a crowd in front of her.
After praying for a long hour, a man came into the Church. By his clothes Flori knew that he was one of the cleaning workers.  When she saw him, Flori was afraid, but after she looked into his eyes, she realized that he was a good man, and that he would help her. Flori approached him and asked him to take her on his bicycle to Wieve, so she could keep hiding. The man agreed to help her and brought her to Wieve. She stayed in Wieve's house for a few days, until he brought her another address of a family that would hide her.

The fourteenth family that helped Flori was a simple family. The father was a carpenter and he lived with his wife and their two children. The family was warm and kind, but there was a risk to stay with them. The two little children could have accidently tell someone about Flori. Because of that risk, Flori stayed with this Family for no longer than two weeks.

The fifteenth place was a woman's house. She lived alone and Flori hid in her home for a few days. During those days Flori couldn't leave the bedroom.

In the next place, the sixteenth, Flori wasn't the only Jew to hide there. A young woman Flori knew from her youth movement was hiding with her. They both hid in the house of three women, two sisters and a teacher who lived with them. Even though there wasn't enough food, electricity or room for everyone, Flori tried to make things happy. For example, when Purim arrived, Flori and the girls had a costume party and a big dinner to celebrate.

After two weeks, Flori moved to the seventeenth and last Family. In the last few days of the war, Flori was hosted by two women who lived together.

When the war was over, Flori felt confused and lost. She decided that if she was fortunate enough to stay alive, she needed to do something meaningful with her life.

Flori found a small apartment to live in, but the apartment was empty of furniture. Therefore, Flori took a horse and a wagon and went to all of the people with whom she lived during the war. She did so in order to thank them and ask for one last favor – to give her a piece of furniture.

She found her brother-in-law and sister-in-law, and asked them to come and live with her. After they were settled in their apartment, Flori decided that she should help others. She found a Jewish union that gathered after the war in order to help others. Flori decided to join them. Her mission was to return a missing child to his mother who was in the south of the Netherlands. She decided that on her way, she would try and find out what happened to her parents during the war. Flori traveled with the child to the village where her parents had lived before the war. She randomly entered a small shoemaking workshop, and asked the owner if had known anything about Felix and Margaret Tal. By miracle, they were in that specific workshop! The owner led Flori to a small room in the back where her parents were. The reunion was extremely emotional. She was deeply moved to meet her parents once again after two years of horrible separation. At the same time, she was amazed by the bad shape they were in: they were skinny and were dressed in rags. She stayed with them for only one night and continued her journey with the child the next morning. On the way, they passed through a town named Eindhoven.  The town was crowded with people who came back from captivity. She saw a truck filled with soldiers, and suddenly, she saw a blink of her husband with whom she did not meet for two years. At first, she was sure that she was dreaming or hallucinating. In retrospective, she realized it really was Elli. Elli had continued on his way to northern Holland while Flori was heading to the opposite direction.

After their long journey, Flori brought the child back to his mother. In that town, she found an empty building where war orphans stayed. She decided to invite one of her youth movement friends that lived in this area and they took care of the children.

After several days, she received a letter that passed through many hands, saying that Elli was now in northern Holland and looking for her. Flori packed her things, apologized to her friend and traveled north to meet him. When she arrived, she found out that Elli could not wait any longer and that he had traveled south to look for her as well. Disappointed, she decided to stay in her apartment and wait for his return. A week later, he arrived to the apartment. Flori was so excited to meet him. She felt it was a miracle that their faith brought them back together. Though they were apart for so long, and went through such different difficult experiences, they felt as if they were apart for only several days.

Later on, Flori found out that her little brother, Willie, died as a hero in Auschwitz.  When the war began, he refused to abandon his patients, who were mentally ill. This way his deportation was postponed. On January 21st, 1943, nine hundred of the hospital patients and fifty members of the medical team were deported to Auschwitz. Though he knew this was about to happen, despite the fact that other team members left to hiding places, Willie chose to stay with his patients. He was loyal to his patients until their death. He died on April 30th 1943.   .

Elli and Flori had three kids. The eldest was born in Holland. In 1947, the Asher family made Aliah to Israel and settled in a kibbutz named "Ma'ayan David".

AMSTERDEM

Amsterdam was founded in the 13th century on the Amstel River. The city got its name after the river dam – Amstel dam.

Soon enough, the little fisherman village that Amsterdam was, became a very important bargaining place (between the Baltic Sea and Europe) and therefore became a big city.

In the 17th century Amsterdam was the world's most important port and a center of banking. At this time, Amsterdam enjoyed not only a successful economy, but also a religious and spiritual liberty, what gave many minorities a chance to live according to their traditions.

In the next century, When the French took over Amsterdam, and ships got too big for Amsterdam port, Amsterdam lost its status was replaced by other Dutch cities.

In  World War 1, Holland stayed neutral but still took a financial hit and because it couldn't recover till 1940 , the Germans invasion in world war 2 was easy and fast.

Many of the Dutch were pro-Natzis and helped the Germans. But there were many who helped Jews to hide and run away.

During the war most of the Jewish community in Holland was murdered (about 100,000 out of 170,000).

After the war, Amsterdam got its glory back, and since the 60's of the last century Amsterdam is well known of its culture and young people.

The Jewish community in Holland and Amsterdam:

Since the middle ages we can see in the Dutch literature hatred towards the Jewish community, but In the 17th century many “Anusim”(Marano) from Portugal were forced to move to  The Netherlands and so the Jewish community got bigger and even had  financial independence. In the II World War 2 30,000 Jews who escaped from Germany and Poland went to Holland and were added to the 140,000 Jewish who lived in Holland before.

Today, there are 25,000 Jews living in Holland and 15,000 of them live in Amsterdam.