16 January 24 • 2019
jn
continued from page 14
jews d
in
the
they had six children, four of them
boys who would retain their usual
Dutch last name, the Tilsma family
was hard to locate. Then she found
an obituary of the father, which listed
the address of one of the older boys,
Meindert, in Barrie, Ontario.
She remembered him well: “He and
his brother, Adry, would come home
from work and school every day.
They would pick me up and twirl me
around and sing songs with me and
play with me. I adored them.”
When she called him, he asked who
was calling? She replied, “Marianne
Rose.” They both laughed and cried
as they shared 75 years of history.
Meindert Tilsma put Posner in touch
with his little sister, Femmy, with
whom she had shared a room 75 years
ago.
Joaquin led Posner to Dr. Evertjan
Hannivoort, who researched the
Enschede community, and helped her
locate 21 surviving members of the
rescuers’
families. They found grand-
children of the Spit family residing in
South Africa, France and Florida.
In November 2017, Joaquin sent
Posner the good news that all three
families would receive recognition.
On May 23, 2018, Esther and Erwin
Posner and their son Daniel met at
the Shouwburg, the elegant theater
in Amsterdam that had served as the
deportation point for Amsterdam’
s
Jews. Right where Esther’
s father had
leapt from the truck, and then pulled
her mother and Esther off to avoid
deportation, Femmy Tilsma and rel-
atives of Meidert Tilsma, along with
members of the Morssink family,
received their official recognition
from the Israeli Consul of Holland
and the president of Yad Vashem,
Holland.
On Oct. 22, 2018, at the Holocaust
Museum in Miami, Gerry Spit,
accompanied by his wife, their chil-
dren and grandchildren, and in
the presence of the Posner family,
received the honor earned by his
grandparents, Anna and Anton Spit,
for concealing the Rose family when
the Nazis were killing Dutch Jews.
Esther Posner had fulfilled her moth-
er’
s wishes. ■
International Holocaust Remembrance Day is
Sunday, Jan. 27. For events at the Holocaust
Memorial Center in Farmington Hills, go to
holocaustcenter.org/events/calendar.
Where Will I Live?
Where are you aging in place? In your
house, apartment, condo, your chil-
dren’
s home, within a senior commu-
nity? How do you know the time is
right for a move? What supports will
you need and who offers them? What
are the financial considerations?
These questions can be overwhelm-
ing to seniors and the loved ones
caring for them. To help make sense
of the decisions surrounding these
concerns and to learn of the options
provided by Detroit’
s Jewish commu-
nal agencies, Jewish Senior Life (JSL)
has teamed with the Jewish News and
its partner agencies Jewish Family
Service (JFS), JVS Human Services
(JVS), the Jewish Community Center
(JCC) and Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit (JFMD) to
conduct an informative community
conversation.
The first of these conversations will
be held at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 5, in
Handleman Hall of the JCC in West
Bloomfield. Following refreshments,
the program will start at 7:30 p.m.
The program is free and open to the
community.
Speakers and their topics: Nancy
Siegel Heinrich, JSL CEO, senior liv-
ing; Perry Ohren, JFS CEO, aging in
the community; Leah Rosenbaum,
JVS CEO, day program and support-
ive services for memory impairment;
Linda Blumberg, JFMD senior plan-
ning advisor, senior demographic
details from the 2018 Jewish popu-
lation study; Dan Cinelli, principal
director, Perkins Eastman, innova-
tions in senior housing.
JN Publisher/Executive Editor
Arthur Horwitz will serve as moder-
ator.
Following their presentations, the
experts will answer questions from
the audience. Local Jewish agencies
will also have informational materials
available.
To RSVP or send a question in
advance, email Keri Guten Cohen of
the JN at kcohen@renmedia.us. ■
A Community Conversation on Aging
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