Helena Suzanna van Tienhoven

Geslacht: Vrouw
Vader: Gijsbert van Tienhoven
Moeder: Helena Suzanna van Hall
Geboren: 10 Feb 1900 Amsterdam
Overleden: 16 Apr 1997 Bentveld
Aantekeningen: Boissevain Helena (1900 - 1997 )
Personal Information
Last Name: Boissevain
First Name: Helena
Suzanna
Maiden Name: Tienhoven van
Date of Birth: 10/02/1900
Date of death: 16/04/1997
Rescuer's fate: survived
Nationality: THE NETHERLANDS
Gender: Female
Place during the war: Haarlem, Noordholland, The Netherlands
Rescue Place: Haarlem, Noordholland, The Netherlands
Rescue mode: Hiding
File number: File from the Collection of the Righteous Among the Nations Department (M.31.2/1743)
Commemoration
Date of Recognition: 03/01/1980
Ceremony held in Yad Vashem: Yes
Rescued Persons
Goldberg, First name unknown
Goldberg, First name unknown
Goldberg, Surname unknown, First name unknown
Vecht, Jacob
Rescue Story
Robert Boissevain of Haarlem, North Holland, was active in the Resistance until his arrest in September 1943. He was involved in espionage and the distribution of forged papers. Helena Boissevain had six children living at home. The eldest, aged 21, was at risk because the German authorities were recruiting all able-bodied young men to work at forced labor in Germany. Despite this, Robert and Helena warmly welcomed a Jewish family, the Goldbergs, into the relative safety of their home. Dr. Goldberg, his wife and their daughter, settled in the Netherlands in the 1930s. He and his family survived the war in the safety of the Boissevain's home. Early in 1943, not long after the arrival of the Goldbergs, Robert himself had to flee. He was apprehended in September of that year and imprisoned in the "Oranjehotel" in Scheveningen for ten months. In June 1944 he was transferred to the Vught camp, from there to the Oranienburg concentration camp and then to the Zwieberg camp near Buchenwald. Robert died there of pneumonia and exhaustion in April 1945.
During this period Helena had been forced to tackle a very difficult situation alone. For the last two years of the war food supplies were constantly dwindling and she had many mouths to feed. Over and above providing shelter for the Goldberg family, she was hiding her eldest son, Robert, in their own home, since he had been arrested and later released by the German authorities, and Jacob Vecht, who had escaped while being deported. Helena would search for food at farms in the countryside and traveled around on bicycles without tires, enduring the hardship. When her son Robert was arrested Helena's first attempt to free him was unsuccessful. Only two days later she returned in different attire and was able to persuade the Germans to release him. As she was leaving the prison compound, she managed to steal two bicycle tires by tying them around her waist in order to smuggle them out. On Christmas Day, 1944, during a German raid in the neighborhood, the Boissevains' home was searched but those in hiding were not discovered.
On January 3, 1980, Yad Vashem recognized Robert Lucas Boissevain and his wife, Helena Suzanna Boissevain-van Tienhoven, and their children Robert, Maria, Helena, Willem, Charles and later (on July 22, 2007) Esther (Grinberg) as Righteous Among the Nations

Gezin 1

Huwelijkspartner: Robert Lucas Boissevain geb. 26 Apr 1895 overl. 12 Apr 1945
Huwelijk: 12 Apr 1921 Amsterdam
Kinderen:
  Willem Boissevain Female geb. 24 OKT 1930
  Robert Lucas Boissevain Female geb. 20 Juni 1922
  Maria Barbera Boissevain Female geb. 1 Nov 1924 overl. 1993
  Helena Suzanna Boissevain Female geb. 18 Aug 1926
  Charles Boissevain Female geb. 5 Apr 1934
  Hester Boissevain Female geb. 5 Apr 1934