Eduard and Alexander Hornemann
Eduard and Alexander Hornemann, two brothers from Eindhoven in the Netherlands, were known as Edo and Lexje.
Edo was born on January 1, 1933, and Lexje on May 31, 1936.
When SS Obersturmführer Strippel had them hanged in the cellar of the school,
Edo was twelve, and his little brother, Lexje, only eight years old.
Their father, Philip Hornemann, was a buyer at Philips. People called him Flip.
After the Wehrmacht invaded the Netherlands, he had to work in the SOBU (Special Development department) that Philips had established for the Jews. Jews felt they were safe from deportation there.
But on August 18, 1943, German troops surrounded the SOBU in Eindhoven. 3,000 Jews were sent to the concentration camp Vught near 's-Hertogenbosch, where a seperate Philips factory was set up to manufacture measuring devices for the Wehrmacht.
Wives and children were to follow voluntarily, with Philips guaranteeing their safety.
Although many people urged Elisabeth Hornemann, the mother of Edo and Lexje, to stay in hiding, she wrote a note to her sister Ans:
'The Philips people have talked me into it. Apparently, I'm the only one who doesn't want to go. So, I will now be strong and go. But I'll come back.'
She didn't.
On June 3, 1944, they were all sent to Auschwitz, where Elisabeth Hornemann died of typhoid.
Her husband Philip froze to death on February 21, 1945, in an open freight wagon near Sachsenhausen.
Elisabeth Hornemann's siblings, Jo Doctors and Ans van Staveren, survived.
Aunt Ans stayed in hiding until the Netherlands were liberated.
For a long time, she hoped that her two nephews would return.
In Eindhoven there is now a Hornemann Brothers Park, amonument to Edo and Lexje, and a museum.
In Hamburg-Burgwedel, there is a street named Brüder-Hornemann-Strasse.