Red, white, and blue badge

Badge in red, white, and blue colors of a flag acquired by Maria or Maurits Schenkkan after the war in Belgium. Maurits, originally from Belgium, lived in the Netherlands with his Catholic German wife, Maria. Nazi Germany occupied the country in May 1940. Sometime later, Maurits was deported to Westerbork internment camp and then put on a train headed for Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland. Before arriving in Auschwitz, the train stopped in Cosel sub-camp. Maurits and about 200 men were removed from the train. Maurits was then sent to a succession of slave labor camps: Anhalt, Graeditz, Langenbielau, Faulbrueck. He was liberated in Reichenbach slave labor camp in April 1945. He retuned to the Netherlands and was reunited with Maria. Maurits's parents, Levie and Rozetta, and his five siblings: Leendert, Esther, Clara, David, and Abraham all perished.