Rolf Oettinger, the younger child of Betty and Herbert Oettinger, was born on September 10, 1933, in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Betty and Herbert had originally lived in Hamburg, Germany. Herbert had served in World War I, receiving the German Iron Cross 1st Class medal.
As the Nazis came to power, the Oettinger family immigrated to Amsterdam to escape antisemitism. In Amsterdam, Jews were well integrated into Dutch economic and social life. Rolf’s father was a successful tobacco merchant, and the Oettinger family lived comfortably.
In May 1940, when the Germans occupied The Netherlands, Rolf was 6 years old. Persecution of the Jews began immediately. Antisemitic measures were enacted. Jewish businesses and bank accounts were confiscated. Jews were barred from most professions and their children were expelled from public schools. Rolf could no longer play with his non-Jewish friends and was forced to wear a yellow star to identify him as a Jew. Friends, neighbors and teachers suddenly began to disappear. Rolf and his family struggled to cope with the drastic changes in their lives.
On June 20, 1943, the Germans conducted a massive door to door raid. Rolf and his family were arrested and sent to Westerbork Transit Camp. They were detained there until Spring 1944, when they were deported to Theresienstadt Transit Camp-Ghetto in Czechoslovakia. Severely crowded and lacking food, medicine and heat, the ghetto was infested with vermin. Rolf and his family were always hungry and constantly lived with the fear of being deported to the death camps in Poland. Rolf’s father worked in the administration of the camp.
In September 1944, a day after Yom Kippur (Jewish Day of Atonement), Rolf’s father was transported to Auschwitz Death Camp in Poland. Two weeks later, on October 18, 1944, Rolf, his sister, and their mother were deported to Auschwitz. They were gassed immediately upon arrival.
Rolf was 11 years old.
Rolf was one of 1.5 million Jewish children murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators during the Holocaust.
A personal history from the Archives of the SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTER 1991-357 [004]
