Gerritje Adriaantje van Leeuwen
| Geslacht: | Vrouw | |
| Vader: | Hendrik van Leeuwen | |
| Moeder: | Maria Margaretha Budding | |
| Geboren: | 18 OKT 1890 | Veenendaal |
| Overleden: | 1962 | |
| Aantekeningen: | Last Name: Brillenburg Wuerth First Name: Gerda Maiden Name: Leeuwen van Rescuer's fate: survived Nationality: THE NETHERLANDS Religion: PROTESTANT Gender: Female Place during the war: Rotterdam, Zuidholland, The Netherlands Rescue Place: Rotterdam, Zuidholland, The Netherlands Rescue mode: Supplying basic goods File number: File from the Collection of the Righteous Among the Nations Department (M.31.2/48) Hendrik and Sophia de Zoete had been hidden at several different addresses in Ede, Gelderland, when they were forced to flee. They eventually found a new hiding place in Rotterdam, where they contacted a Jewish colleague, Jacques Wolf, upon their arrival in the city. Hendrik and Sophia were introduced to two Protestant clergymen at Jacques home, Reverends Bakker and Brillenburg Wurth. That very day, April 22, 1943, the Jews in the area who had not yet been deported were ordered to report for deportation at the Vught camp. Consequently, Reverend Gerrit Brillenburg Wurth immediately set about finding a shelter for Hendrik and Sophia in the home of one of his parishioners. Gerrit found the couple a hideout at the home of the Groeneveld* family. However, after six weeks, the Groenevelds were warned that house searches and razzias were imminent. Gerrit thus helped them again, by affording them refuge in his church, in a hiding place between the ceiling and the roof of the building. Gerrit felt that this hideout was too depressing for the couple to remain in for more than a few weeks but they ended up staying there until the end of the war. During that time, Gerrit filled in his sexton Hendrik de Mars* and his wife, Anna, who were already hiding people under the roof of the church, and they helped him to look after the de Zoetes. The de Zoetes hideout was at the opposite end of the church from the other hidden people, above the windpipes of the organ. A bed was placed in the hideaway and there was only a single plank measuring about 2 x 5 ft. where the couple could stand or walk if they wished to move around. While they were hidden in the church, Gerrit and his wife, Gerda, brought Hendrik and Sophia their meals by going through a small garden adjacent to their home and sliding the food through a hatch in the ceiling of a small storeroom beneath the fugitives hiding place. The reverend and his wife also emptied the bucket that served in lieu of a bathroom on a daily basis. A year after the de Zoetes moved into the church, the Germans arrested Gerrit and several other prominent anti-German figures. At that point, it became too dangerous for Gerda to continue attending to her wards and so Hendirk and Anna de Mars took over the task. Throughout their time in hiding in the church, the de Zoetes lives were always in danger---there was always a chance that the other Jewish family in hiding would get careless and in any event the church was constantly under surveillance because its members were involved in various illegal activities. On January 25, 1966, Yad Vashem recognized Gerrit Brillenburg Wurth and his wife,Gerda Brillenburg Wurth, as Righteous Among the Nations. |
|
Gezin 1
| Huwelijkspartner: | Gerrit Brillenburg Wurth | geb. 28 Apr 1898 overl. 22 Nov 1963 |
| Huwelijk: | 10 Sept 1924 | Veenendaal |