Froukje Volp-Rinzema

Froukje Volp was born on 10 July 1913 in the Dutch town Drachten.1WTA Emmen, Volp, Froukje, declaration of release St. Lambrecht; WTA Emmen, interview Volp, Froukje, 31-08-1995; PA, interview Hoogers-Elbertsen, Jans, 16-10-2002.

Kamppas van concentratiekamp Ravensbrück van Froukje Volp
Prisoner identification card belonging to Froukje Volp for Ravensbrück concentration camp (Historical Archives Watchtower Society Emmen, the Netherlands)

She grew up in a working-class family of seven. They were brought up in the Dutch Reformed faith, though not very strictly. While she was still at school, she worked in a greengrocer’s shop. After she turned fourteen, she found a position with a sexton from a Baptist Church in Utrecht. A year later Froukje changed jobs and was baptised at the age of 16. She met the Bible Students for the first time in 1930 in Heerlen. Shortly after her marriage in 1939, she was baptised as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses by her brother in the faith, Hartstang, in the Keulse Vaart (canal) and then took part in the preaching work.

Froukje Volp op 24-jarige leeftijd (foto van 14 mei 1937)
Froukje Volp aged 24 (photo from 14 May 1937) (Historical Archives Watchtower Society Emmen, the Netherlands)

On 7 September 1941 Froukje was arrested and was taken to the prison in Scheveningen. By coincidence, she met the Jehovah’s Witness, Sophie Hemmink, while here in custody. Both were deported to the women’s concentration camp in Ravensbrück and Froukje was given the registration number 9143. She was also assigned to block 12. Froukje was set to work in a garden detail outside the camp. Her job there was to plant dandelions, which were used for medicinal purposes. In order to stave off the hunger of her friend and sister in the faith, Annie van Basten, she stole dandelion leaves and smuggled them into the barracks where two hundred women were crowded together trying to stay alive. In Ravensbrück Froukje refused to line up for roll-call, for which she was flogged. She attempted to give support to Sophie Hemmink by giving her some of her food rations, but Sophie refused. Sophie Hemmink belonged to the group of so-called ‘extremes’ who were constantly being punished for their attitude of refusal. When Sophie contracted typhoid fever, she was deported to Auschwitz and murdered there. Froukje did not hear about this until August 1944 when she had already been in St. Lambrecht concentration camp for a year. At the same time, a letter from her sister, Pietje, reached her, saying that her mother had passed away. Froukje then fell into a deep depression. In the women’s concentration camp at St. Lambrecht she was first assigned to forestry detail. Afterwards she was put to work in the former monastery garden.

In September 1943 she received a letter from her parents in Drachten, who let her know that her husband, David Volp, had been released from imprisonment after two years in camp Amersfoort and had returned home.2WTA Emmen, letter from J. K. Rinzema of 1 September 1943.  This message must have been of great comfort to Froukje, as she now knew that her husband would be taking care of their children again.

 

Brief aan Froukje Volp van haar zuster, augustus 1944

Brief aan Froukje Volp van haar zuster, augustus 1944
Letter to Froukje Volp from her sister, August 1944. (Historical Archives Watchtower Society Emmen, the Netherlands)
David Volp (datum foto onbekend)
David Volp (date of photo unknown). (Historical Archives Watchtower Society Emmen, the Netherlands)

Persoonsbewijs uit de Nederlandse bezettingstijd van David Volp. (Historisch archief Wachttorengenootschap Emmen/Nederland)

David Volp’s identity card during the Dutch occupation. (Historical Archives Watchtower Society Emmen, the Netherlands)

Froukje’s memories of the situation in St. Lambrecht camp have remained clear in her mind. She sang religious songs with her sisters in the faith, they discussed the Bible with each other, and they even managed to celebrate the so-called Memorial together. Froukje tried to keep her spirits up by actively witnessing. However, her psyche suffered heavily under the circumstances. She cried a lot.3PA, interview Berkers, Toos, 16-10-2002.

After capitulation of the German Wehrmacht on 8 May 1945, and after four years of imprisonment, Froukje was finally liberated by the Allies. When she arrived in the Netherlands after a huge detour through Italy, France and Belgium, she found her house occupied by former collaborators. With the help of the Public Housing Authorities, she eventually found a new home and she took up the preaching work of Jehovah’s Witnesses again.

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