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Henri and Ans Methorst, both in their early forties, lived in s Graveland (prov. North Holland), with their three-year-old son Eric in an isolated villa, Wilgenhof, which they shared with other families. Henri ran an avant-garde publishing company, de Driehoek, for which Paul Citroen, a well-known Jewish artist in the Netherlands, had written a number of articles on art before the war. Early in the war, Henri and Ans, avid music lovers, organized music evenings in their home from time to time, inviting Jewish artists to perform, so that they could earn some income. In November 1943, the Methorsts were approached by Citroens wife, Celina (née Bendien), asking for urgent help. She had been tipped off about an upcoming round up in Wassenaar where she lived, and needed an immediate hiding address for her 12-year-old daughter Paulien and herself. Paul himself had gone into hiding over a year earlier, when he was listed for work in the East. Celina, who had a non-Jewish father, yet married to a Jew, still had an exemption from deportation. Even though Celina did not know Henri and Ans personally, she knew of their idealism from stories told by her husband Paul and therefore decided to take a chance. Henri and Ans responded positively, fully aware of the heightened danger. They knew that Jews, who were in hiding with a family living on the ground floor of their villa, had been betrayed and deported. Celina and daughter Paulien were given their own room in the villa. The other residents were told they were just boarders without further detail. The Methorsts took care of all the Citroens needs and Henri even home-schooled Paulien in History and French. In March 1944, Henny Kanis, b.1917, and her future husband, Fred Ferro, b.1918, good friends of the Methorsts, joined the Citroen women in hiding. Henny and Fred had had to leave an earlier hiding address that had been located by Henri, and he and Ans decided to take them into their own home as well. In addition, the day after Crazy Tuesday (Dolle Dinsdag) September 4, 1944, when the Methorsts thought, as most Dutch did, that the war was over, Paul Citroen came to join his wife and daughter. It turned out, however, that in the western parts of the Netherlands, including the province of North-Holland, the war would continue until May 5, 1945. The severe Hungerwinter of 1944-1945 was to follow. Paul Citroen thus found himself in hiding as well. All three Citroens as well as Henny and Fred stayed on in hiding with Henri and Ans until the liberation. Close relations between all continued after the war.
On October 27, 2002, Yad Vashem recognized Henri Wilhelmus Methorst and Ans Methorst-Kuiper, as Righteous Among the Nations. |
