Benjamin Blankenstein | Teachers Who Rescued Jews During the Holocaust | "Their Fate Will Be My Fate Too..." | Yad Vashem
Benjamin was a teacher at a local Christian elementary school of Soestdijk, in the Netherlands. He and his wife Maria had a baby daughter, born in 1940. When Benjamin Blankenstein heard that the Bernstein family had been betrayed at an earlier hiding place, he proposed to hide them in his home. Maria, who had just given birth to their second daughter, agreed. Henry, Martha and their son Rolf found a home under the Blankenstein’s roof. But the police broke into the Blankenstein home on June 5, 1944, while Benjamin was at school. The police arrested the Bernsteins and, about half an hour later, Benjamin was arrested at the school. He perished in Bergen-Belsen on February 24, 1945. The Bernsteins were deported. Henry and Rolf were murdered in Auschwitz. Martha survived the war. "Upon her return from the camp, ill and alone, she was again welcomed by Maria Blankenstein."
