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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