Paulina van Crombruggen

Geslacht:	Vrouw
Vader:	Julianus Josephus Philippus van Crombruggen
Moeder:	Elisabeth Hermans
Geboren:	9 Nov 1892	Antwerpen, België
Overleden:	20 Sept 1951	Utrecht
Aantekeningen:	Last Name: Crombruggen van First Name: Paulina Date of Birth: 09/11/1892 Date of death: 20/09/1951 Rescuer's fate: survived Nationality: THE NETHERLANDS Religion: CATHOLIC Gender: Female Place during the war: Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands Rescue Place: Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands Rescue mode: Hiding File number: File from the Collection of the Righteous Among the Nations Department (M.31.2/9476) Paulina van Crombruggen, born in Antwerp, Belgium, was living in Utrecht when The Netherlands was occupied in May 1940. Paulina, a Roman Catholic, was in her late forties and divorced from her Jewish husband, Aaron Blaaser. Their 23-year-old daughter Sara lived with her and together they operated a beauty salon. With the onset of the deportations of the Jews in the summer of 1942, some relatives of her ex-husband managed to find temporary hiding places. Her ex-husband, however, was deported and murdered in Auschwitz. When her former sister-in-law, Rebecca Heilbron-Blaaser, was also discovered and deported, her husband Leo Heilbron urgently needed an alternative place for their son Johnny, born in 1939. He turned to Paulina, who immediately responded positively to his cry for help. One day in 1943, two Dutch SS men, tipped off about the child’s presence, came to the van Crombruggen home. Paulina went down on her knees begging them not to take the child and somehow managed to convince them to leave the child with her. Over time the beauty parlor became a meeting point for resistance activists, until, in March 1944, both mother and daughter van Crombruggen were arrested. Johnny was at kindergarten at the time of the raid on the salon, and Paulina was able to alert a neighbour to immediately get the boy and take him home with her. Paulina was taken to the SS headquarters, but released some days later. However, her daughter Sara, having a Jewish father, was deported to Theresienstadt via the Westerbork transit camp. In spite of the increased danger, Paulina took Johnny back into her home after her release. In addition, in June 1944, when Johnny’s father Leo could no longer stay in his hiding place and was desperate for a new shelter, Pauline came through for him as well. She traveled to his hiding address in southern Holland to take him on a dangerous train ride back to her home. Also in June, distant relatives of the Blaasers, a Mr. J. Rabbi and his wife L. Rabbi-Matteman, turned to Paulina when they needed a new hiding address. Again, Paulina opened her home for them as well. Now that Paulina was hiding four people, the food supply became an acute problem. Her neighbors supposed that she was living by herself, so shopping had to be done in far away places. With no food available during the infamous Hungerwinter of 1944-1945, Paulina went on treks to farmers in the east of the country to get some additional food, often having to sell personal belongings and pay high prices. Paulina succeeded in protecting all four Jews until the liberation of the area in May 1945. Daughter Sara survived, but returned home in very bad health. Until Paulina’s death in 1951, close relations continued among all. On October 11, 2001, Yad Vashem recognized Paulina van Crombruggen as Righteous Among the Nations.

Gezin 1

Huwelijkspartner:	Aron Blaaser	geb. 6 Nov 1889 overl. 1 Aug 1942
Huwelijk:	17 Nov 1915	Rotterdam
Scheiding:	20 Sept 1934	Rotterdam
Kinderen:
	Sara Julia Elisabeth Blaaser	geb. 29 MEI 1917