Series 01 - Personal records

Title and statement of responsibility area

Title proper

Personal records

General material designation

  • Textual record

Parallel title

Other title information

Title statements of responsibility

Title notes

  • Source of title proper: Source of supplied title proper is based on the content of the series.

Level of description

Series

Reference code

CA VHEC RA024-01

Edition area

Edition statement

Edition statement of responsibility

Class of material specific details area

Statement of scale (cartographic)

Statement of projection (cartographic)

Statement of coordinates (cartographic)

Statement of scale (architectural)

Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)

Dates of creation area

Date(s)

  • 1942-[ca. 1945] (Creation)
    Creator
    Louise Stein Sorensen

Physical description area

Physical description

Extent of descriptive unit: 1 photocopy of an original document sent from Sorensen’s Montessori school, 1 report card from Sorensen’s Montessori school, and 3 freehand drawings done in pencil by Sorensen.

Publisher's series area

Title proper of publisher's series

Parallel titles of publisher's series

Other title information of publisher's series

Statement of responsibility relating to publisher's series

Numbering within publisher's series

Note on publisher's series

Archival description area

Name of creator

(1929-)

Biographical history

Louise Stein Sorensen was born in Rotterdam on February 12, 1929 to Isidor Stein and Marianne (Jeanne) van Dam. Her sister, Eleonore, was born in 1923. Sorensen’s immediate family moved from Rotterdam to Amsterdam in 1936.

Sorensen’s father ran a fur coat factory; the business was appropriated in 1941. In June 1942, Sorensen’s family home and all its contents were confiscated by the Nazis. After their home was expropriated, the family was moved to Amsterdam and placed in what would become the Jewish ghetto. They were temporarily protected by an exemption list, which was cancelled in January 1943. After their exemption was cancelled the family went into hiding, with help from a non-Jewish relative in Hilversum who was able to help them attain forged identity cards and their first hiding addresses. At her first address, Sorensen used the false name Loes van Boven. She was separated from her parents and sister and moved from home to home around the Netherlands. Sorensen had help from members of the resistance.

Sorensen and her parents were reunited in the fall of 1943 and hidden by a farmworker and his wife in Apeldoorn, Netherlands. They stayed inside in an attic every day until mid-April 1945 when Canadian soldiers liberated the area. While Sorensen’s parents and sister survived, they later found out through the Red Cross that nearly all of their extended family had been murdered in Sobibor, Auschwitz and in Minsk and Transylvania.

Louise Stein Sorensen graduated from the University of Amsterdam with a degree in Social Psychology in 1956. She married Eigil (Ike) Kaergaard Sorensen in her home town in January 1959. Shortly thereafter, she moved to British Columbia with her husband, a Danish immigrant who already resided there. They had two sons and three grandsons. Sorensen has been an outreach speaker for the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre since 1985 and was a VHEC board member for ten years. Additionally, she was a member of the Gesher Project, a group of survivors and children of survivors who met regularly to create painting, writing and discussion about the Holocaust. Sorensen is a founding member of the VHEC’s child survivor group and a member of the board of the World Federation of Child Survivors of the Holocaust.

Custodial history

Records were in the custody of Sorensen prior to their acquisition by the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre in 2019.

Scope and content

Series consists of textual and graphic materials relating directly to Sorensen. Records include a photocopy of an original document sent from Sorensen’s Montessori school, an original report card from Sorensen’s 1942/1943 year at Montessori school, and 3 original hand drawings done in pencil. The drawings were done by Sorensen when she was around 16 years old.

Notes area

Physical condition

The items in this series exhibit signs of aging, handling, and storage through the papers’ discoloration, stains, folds, creases, and tears.

Immediate source of acquisition

Records were donated by Sorensen in 2019.

Arrangement

Items have been arranged chronologically by the archivist according to the date of creation of the original item.

Language of material

    Script of material

      Location of originals

      Availability of other formats

      Restrictions on access

      Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication

      Finding aids

      Item level description available.

      Associated materials

      Related materials

      Accruals

      Further accruals are not expected.

      Alternative identifier(s)

      Standard number

      Standard number

      Access points

      Subject access points

      Place access points

      Name access points

      Genre access points

      Control area

      Description record identifier

      Institution identifier

      Rules or conventions

      Rules for Archival Description

      Status

      Final

      Level of detail

      Full

      Dates of creation, revision and deletion

      Series arranged in July 2019 by Ally Bebbling.

      Language of description

      • English

      Script of description

        Sources

        Accession area