Title and statement of responsibility area
Title proper
General material designation
- Graphic material
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
Repository
Reference code
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)
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[ca. 1921]-2006 (Creation)
- Creator
- Louise Stein Sorensen
Physical description area
Physical description
Extent of descriptive unit: 10 b&w negatives, 25 b&w photographs, 2 col. photographs
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
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 graphic materials concerning Sorensen and her family members and their experiences before, during and after the Second World War. Records include original and copied photographs and negatives. Many of the original materials remain in the custody of Sorensen or her sister, Elenore. Although some of the exact dates are unknown, the known dates of items in this series range from ca. 1921 to 2006.
Notes area
Physical condition
Numerous items in this series exhibit signs of aging, storage, and handling. This is evident through the visible effects of airborne, transferred and intrinsic pollutants.
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. Photographs and negatives are stored separately for purposes of preservation.
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
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
Level of detail
Dates of creation, revision and deletion
Series arranged in July 2019 by Ally Bebbling.
Language of description
- English