The Tal family – Sander and his parents

Chapter 1.1
1.1 02 SalomonTal HenrietteVanZanten
Salomon Tal and Henriette van Zanten, Amsterdam, 1897
 ©Private property of the Tal family
1.1 03 Henriette Sander Salomon
Sander with his parents
 ©Private property of the Tal family

Chanan tells:

Our grandparents on our father’s side were Salomon Tal, called Shlomo in Hebrew, and Henriette van Zanten. 

They were not young when our father Sander was born. Shlomo was 52 years old, and Grandma Henriette was 35.

Grandpa was the bookkeeper at his uncle’s (Mother’s brother’s) company. They kept a Jewish religious home in every respect. 

Grandpa Tal died in 1927.

1.1 04 Sander 4years
1907, Sander is 4 years old
 ©Private property of the Tal family

Our father, Alexander Tal, was born 24 October 1903 in Amsterdam. He was named Alexander and, in short, was called Sander, after his maternal grandfather.

His name in Hebrew was Avraham Eliezer Dov, a rather long name because his grandfather had “Eliezer” (God is my help) added to his name in the hope that it would save him when he fell ill and there was fear for his life.

1.1 06 Sander Teacher
Sander, 15 years old (left) with the geography teacher
 ©Private property of the Tal family
1.1 07 Sander
Sander Tal
 ©Private property of the Tal family
1.1 08 Zwanenburgwal
The Tal family home at Zwanenburgwal
 ©Private property of the Tal family

The house where Father, Sander, was born stood by a wide water canal in the Jewish Quarter of Amsterdam. After World War I, the family left the quarter for a beautiful home on the waterfront of the Amstel River.

In Amsterdam, the big and beautiful houses are usually by the water, and the view from them is more extensive.

After World War II, the Jewish Quarter was empty of its inhabitants since most of them perished in the Holocaust. All the houses in the area where Sander was born were demolished, and a new town hall and opera house were built in their place.

1.1 09 Fre Sander ZichronYaacovGroup
In the Zichron Ya’acov youth movement. In the front row on the right, Sander and Fré are arm-in-arm
 ©Private property of the Tal family

Father attended a general high school, and in addition, he studied Torah (Old Testament) and Hebrew language.

He was active in the Zionist-religious youth movement Zichron Ya’acov. He made many friendships there and was liked and appreciated in his circle of acquaintances.

Zionism was founded at the end of the 19th century as a political movement. Its members demanded their own Jewish state. Jews had suffered religious and political persecution for centuries.

The Zionists wanted Jews to be protected from antisemitic exclusion and violence and for Jewish culture and religion to thrive. The movement was named after Zion, the biblical and historical place from which the Jews had been expelled into the diaspora. The Zionists wanted to build their own community in Jerusalem and Palestine.

Religious Jews formed a distinct faction within the Zionist movement. They organised themselves into youth movements such as Zichron Ya’acov and Mizrahi. Fré and Sander Tal were active in these.

1.1 10 Sander YouthMovementGroup
Sander in 1925, in the bottom row on the right
 ©Private property of the Tal family
1.1 11 Sander YouthMovementGroup
Sander in the center
 ©Private property of the Tal family
1.1 12 Sander YouthMovementGroup
Sander in the center
 ©Private property of the Tal family

Later, together with our mother, he was a guide in the summer camps of the Mizrahi youth movement. After his matriculation exams, in 1922, he began studying electrical engineering at the Technical University in Delft.

As a teenager, he was already interested in electrical engineering and had a primitive crystal radio that he built.

On 11 November 1918, he picked up, on this radio, the announcement of the armistice that ended World War I.

1.1 13 Sander Water 1929
Sander (left), 1929
 ©Private property of the Tal family
1.1 14 Sander 1929
Sander (left), 1929
 ©Private property of the Tal family
1.1 15 Sander Tree 1929
Sander (left), 1929
 ©Private property of the Tal family
1.1 16 Sander Reserve 1929
Sander front row 2nd from the left, kneeling, 1929
 ©Private property of the Tal family

During his studies, Father did not live in Delft but commuted daily from Amsterdam. It took about an hour and a half each way. He cycled to the train station, took the train, and again cycled to the university. On the one hand, the effort made it easy to maintain a kosher and religious lifestyle. But on the other hand, because of travel and his absence from lectures on Shabbat, it took him an additional year to finish his studies.

On vacations from school in Delft, Father served in a kind of “academic reserve”, a substitute for compulsory service in the Dutch army.

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