Alijda Röhrman

Geslacht:	Vrouw
Vader:	Pieter Franciscus Röhrman
Moeder:	Cornelia Hoogendoorn
Geboren:	1917	Utrecht
Aantekeningen:	Last Name: Bretschneider First Name: Alijda Maiden Name: Röhrman Date of Birth: 1917 Date of death: 09/09/1975 Rescuer's fate: survived Nationality: THE NETHERLANDS Gender: Female Profession: LIBRARIAN Place during the war: Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands Rescue Place: Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands Rescue mode: Hiding File number: File from the Collection of the Righteous Among the Nations Department (M.31.2/12288) The Polacek family, father Kamil, mother Agnes (née Glas) and their only daughter Kamila (later, Spiro), born in 1933, were originally from Czechoslovakia, and had come to the Netherlands in 1938 after the takeover of that country by Germany. Kamil Polacek, a well-known chemical engineer in his native land, had professional contacts in Dordrecht, in the province of South-Holland, where he was offered a job. After the occupation of the Netherlands in May 1940, and with the ever increasing anti-Jewish measures, the Polaceks, being foreigners, were ordered to move inland, and thus settled in the central city of Utrecht, neighbors to Ludwig and Alijda Bretschneider. In the summer of 1942, with the start of the deportations to the camps, Agnes was ordered to report "for work" in the East. Kamil received a "Sperre", an exemption from deportation, which over time turned out to be a temporary measure only. In 1943, the three Polaceks were arrested and taken to the Hollandsche Schouwburg in Amsterdam, the assembly point for transfer to the Westerbork transit camp. Kamila (called Ilush), now ten years old, was separated from her parents and taken to the crèche opposite the Schouwburg, from where she was spirited away about a month later. Soon afterwards, Kamil Polacek managed to regain his "Sperre", and he and his wife were released from the Schouwburg. They decided to immediately contact their neighbors in Utrecht, the Bretschneider couple, asking for help and were taken in. Ludwig, originally from Austria, in his fifties, was a professor of zoology at Utrecht University, and Alijda, in her forties, was a librarian. They had no children. As both of them were at work during the day, the Polaceks had to stay very quite as no one was to know about their presence. They could not flush the toilet or walk with shoes in the apartment. They also had to stay away from the windows as possibly neighbors would recognize them. In case a noise would be heard during the day, and commented on by neighbors, they would be told that the cats in the house had probably toppled something. In the evening, they could join the Bretschneiders, and a friendship developed. A month after her arrival in the crèche, Kamila was whisked away, with the consent of her parents, by a student resistance group to a hiding address. She was taken to the home of Kamil's secretary, Lieneke van Kregten*, and her husband Simon in the seashore town of Santpoort (prov. North-Holland). From then on, she answered to the name of Loesje Moll, in whose name she had received false papers. She stayed with Lieneke and Simon for a year, until, in 1944, all the village residents were moved away from the coast on German orders, as the Germans feared an Allied invasion by sea. The van Kregtens took Kamila with them to Simon's parents in The Hague. Soon afterwards, Simon received a summons to report for forced labor in Germany, which he refused and went into hiding. Kamila could no longer stay on, and she was taken to her parents at the Bretschneiders. Kamila, by now eleven years old, found it extremely difficult to be utterly quiet all day. One day, Germans entered the apartment and Agnes presented herself as the daughter of the house. She was believed, possibly because of her fluent German. During the infamous Hungerwinter of 1944-1945, both the Bretschneiders and the Polaceks suffered from lack of food, yet the three Polaceks were allowed to stay on. During the last few months of the occupation, there were frequent bombings of the city, but luckily no one was hurt. The Polaceks stayed on until the liberation of the city in May 1945 and then returned to Dordrecht where Kamil regained work. Agnes went into deep depression when she heard that her own entire family had been murdered. On December 27, 2011, Yad Vashem recognized Ludwig Bretschneider and Alijda Bretschneider-Röhrman as Righteous Among the Nations.

Gezin 1

Huwelijkspartner:	Ludwig Hermann Bretschneider	geb. 1899
Huwelijk:	6 OKT 1937	Utrecht