Object ID
2019.2.278
Object Name
Postcard
Date
8-31-1942
Files
Download Full Text (534 KB)
Description
Envelope with green “NEDERLAND” postage stamp, “Aurora” in orange print, addressed to “Van Perlstein & Roeper Bosch.” Back stamped with “ONTVANGEN 01 SEP. 1942” in black ink near bottom.
[Related items 2019.2.273-.278]
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Request for 24 games of Monopoly. Van Perlstein is the licensee in the Netherlands for the popular game.
The van Perlsteins were a prosperous family living in a vibrant Jewish community in pre-war Amsterdam whose lives were irrevocably changed under the German occupation. Philip Samuel (Sam) van Perlstein, had been an importer of Orientalia before expanding into other areas of profitability such as board games; his company, van Perlstein and Roeper Bosch, held the first license in the Netherlands to sell Monopoly. A copy of the stock market game Beursspel is displayed at the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam; Peter van Pels had received it as a 16th birthday present, four months after going into hiding with the Franks.
Sam van Perlstein had understood early the plight of the Jews of Holland. He and his son Gerard van Perlstein assisted in setting up a resistance network. They were able to establish a relationship with Werner Klemke, a German Wehrmacht soldier and talented artist who despised Nazism. Klemke risked his life forging documents for Dutch Jews - identity cards, baptismal and birth certificates, etc. - which enabled some Jews to leave Holland and others to go into hiding. Klemke’s documents ultimately saved the lives of many Jews during the occupation.
While Sam and Gerard survived the war, others in his family were less fortunate. Sam’s brother Herman was murdered in Auschwitz in November 1942. He had been a prominent member of the Amsterdam rowing club. Sam’s uncle Bernard, whom Sam was able to help establish a business trading yeast when his own business failed in the Great Depression, was to be arrested for not wearing his Jewish star, and subsequently deported to Vught concentration camp and ultimately Auschwitz where he perished in January 1944. Siegfried Herman van Perlstein, a prominent lawyer and prosecutor, also perished at Auschwitz in January 1943. And Sam’s mother, Sara van Perlstein-Hecht, who resided at 160 Van Breestraat in Amsterdam, took her own life in March 1943.
[Related items: 2019.2.273-.278]
Dimensions
4 x 6"
Keywords
Netherlands, Van Perlstein, Roeper Bosch
Subcollection
Netherlands
Recommended Citation
"Request from “Aurora” Company to Van Perlstein and Roeper Bosch" (1942). Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection. 2019.2.278.
https://digital.kenyon.edu/bulmash/1604
Rights Statement
