The Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum honored a Netherlands couple with the Righteous Among the Nations award Thursday for their role in rescuing Jews from the Nazis.
The posthumous ceremony was attended by Aart Plantinga, the couple’s son, who received the medal and certificate of honor on his parents’ behalf.
H.E. Michiel den Hond, Ambassador of the Netherlands in Israel, also attended, along with Holocaust survivors who were rescued by the couple, and friends of the family.
Nicolaas and Hendrikje Plantinga, along with their son Aart, lived in Amsterdam in the family’s boarding house. While Hendrikje managed the family business, her husband Nicolaas delivered dairy products each day through a neighborhood where many Jewish families lived.
In the summer of 1942, many Jewish customers beseeched Nicolaas for refuge in the family’s boarding house. Eventually, the Plantingas took 10 Jews into hiding, each paying for their own food.
Once a month, a member of the Underground would deliver food ration coupons, and Nicolaas would travel to a distant neighborhood to purchase food and medicine in order to avoid suspicion. The risk was monumental.
In March 1944, the Underground contact was arrested, and the hiding place was discovered. German and Dutch police surrounded the house and captured the Jews, who were deported to concentration camps. Of the 10 who had tried so desperately to avoid detection only one, Wilhelmina Mathilda van Praag, survived and currently lives in Amsterdam.
Meanwhile, Hendrikje, who was sick at the time, was not arrested, nor was her son. Nicolaas was not at home, and upon his return the neighbors quickly told him what had transpired, warning him not to enter the house. The three Plantingas instead sought shelter at a local factory, but when the owner discovered that Nicolaas was wanted by police, he turned them in.
Hendrikje and her son were eventually released, but Nicolaas was deported to the Vught concentration camp, and from there to Neuengamme, where he died in January 1945.
When Hendrikje and Aart returned home, they found that their house had been looted, and she was no longer able to rent out rooms to support herself; instead, she was forced to work as a housecleaner. Hendrikje died in December 1989.