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Wijnberg was born in Groningen, Netherlands.
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Selma Engel
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She escaped successfully from Sobibor and survived the war. In September 1942 she first hid in Utrecht, and later in De Bilt. While hiding she used the name "Greetje van den Berg".
She was arrested on 18 December 1942, and transferred, two months later, to Camp Vught, then to Camp Westerbork and finally to Sobibor on 9 April 1943.
After her escape during the revolt in Sobibor on 14 October 1943, she fled with Chaim Engel, a Polish Jew (10 January 1916 – 4 July 2003). The two had met and fallen in love in Sobibor.
The couple fled through a minefield and a forest and hid for nine months in the attic of a farm until the expulsion of Axis forces from Poland in July 1944 by the Red Army. The couple married, and she became pregnant.
They crossed the Ukraine by train to Chernivtsi and to Odessa.
They left by boat for Marseille, France. During the journey, Emiel died. His body was buried at sea near Greece.
From Marseille they travelled by train to Zwolle and returned to Selma"s parents" home, Hotel Wijnberg.
Minister Hans Kolfschoten decided that Chaim Engel could not remain in the Netherlands as he was an unwanted foreigner. The police of Zwolle concluded that Selma, by marrying Engel, a Pole, had become a Polish citizen.
The police asked the Ministry of Justice what should happen with them both. They could not be returned to Poland because Poland no longer accepted the return of Polish citizens expelled from foreign countries.
lieutenant was decided not to intern them in a camp for foreigners near Valkenswaard because that detention centre was full and because Selma was of Dutch origin.
They set up a velvet and fashion store. In 1951 they moved to Israel where they settled in Kibbutz Moledet and later in Beit Yitzhak. Chaim did not feel at home in Israel, so in 1957 they decided to move to the United States where they settled in Branford, Connecticut.
They returned to Europe on some occasions to testify against the war criminals of Sobibor.
On 12 April 2010, Minister Ab Klink apologized during the Westerbork-rememberings ceremony on behalf of the Dutch government. She did not accept the apologies, because they were "too late".
The same day she was decorated with the grade of Knight in de Order of Oranje-Nassau. lieutenant was the first time since she had left in 1951 that she returned to the Netherlands.
In the 1987 movie Escape from Sobibor her character was played by Ellis van Maarseveen.
Ad van Liempt wrote a biography about her Selma: De vrouw die Sobibor overleefde () and made a documentary about her which was aired by the NOS on Dutch television
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