The ‘Marriage book’ of Leendert and Betty van Rooij-Frank

Rooij, René van | Paperback / softback | 24-02-2022 | 9789464249446

They get married at the Utrecht synagogue two weeks after meeting for the first time. The bride’s earlier fiancé has taken his life during the first week of the occupation. With many other Jewish Dutchmen the groom’s parents have already been arrested, before being transported to extermination camps. More than a hundred friends and family, many with a yellow Star of David, attend the reception. The cou-ple escape twice from the Dutch Theatre where the Germans hold Jews in custody pending transport to Westerbork transit camp, to become master forgers while in hiding: Betty and Leendert, the happiest couple on earth, surviving the on-slaught by sheer guts, optimism, mazzel, and with the help of Good Samaritans.