Eelkje Bakels
| Geslacht: | Vrouw | |
| Vader: | Adrianus Bakels | |
| Moeder: | Foekje van der Veen | |
| Geboren: | 9 Dec 1899 | Bolsward |
| Overleden: | 17 OKT 1991 | |
| Aantekeningen: | Personal Information Last Name: Bakels First Name: Eelke Date of Birth: 01/01/1910 Date of death: 01/01/1991 Rescuer's fate: survived Nationality: THE NETHERLANDS Religion: CALVINIST Gender: Female Rescue Place during the war: Hattem, Gelderland, The Netherlands Rescue Place: Hattem, Gelderland, The Netherlands Rescue mode: Hiding File number: File from the Collection of the Righteous Among the Nations Department (M.31.2/10506) Commemoration Date of Recognition: 13/02/2005 Righteous Commemorated with Tree/Wall of Honor: Wall of Honor Ceremony organized by Israeli diplomatic delegation in: The Hague, Netherlands Rescued Persons Polak, Ronnie Polak, Rescue Story Ham van den, Hendrik Ham van den-Terpstra, Pietje Bakels, Adrianus Bakels-van der Veen, Foekje Bakels, Eelkje Hendrik and Pietje van den Ham, both in their early thirties, lived in town of Nijkerk (prov. Gelderland) with their four children. Hendrik ran a bookstore with a cigar sales section. It served as a center for exchange of local news and information and was nicknamed the dry café. As the war progressed, and Jews were called up for work in the East starting in the summer of 1942, Sodok Polak, a sales representative for office supplies from Utrecht, turned to Hendrik for help. Polak knew van den Ham as they had had commercial contacts over the years. Polak told Hendrik that he and his wife Suze had succeeded in locating a hiding place for themselves, but he desperately needed an address for their two young sons, Ronnie, b.1937, and Ab, b.1939. After consultation with his wife Pietje, Hendrik went to Utrecht to pick up the boys and brought them home. Neighbors were told that the boys were distant relatives. The boys soon integrated fully into the van den Ham family and played nicely with the van den Ham children who were approximately of the same age. In the summer of 1943, close relatives of the van den Hams were arrested and executed for underground activities and as a result the van den Ham home was placed under scrutiny. Hendrik immediately moved the two boys from one temporary address to another. He eventually found the strictly Calvinist Bakels family, willing to take the risk and hide both boys. The Bakels lived on a barge along a canal in the village of Hattem (prov. Gelderland). The parents, Adrianus and Foekje Bakels, were already in their seventies, and so daughter Eelkje, who lived at home, was the main caretaker for the Polak boys. Eelkje also taught the boys as home as much as possible. Access to the boat was through a removable bridge, which added to the secrecy of the boys’ presence with them. A German V2 rocket base was close by, and from time to time misfired projectiles fell in the immediate surroundings. British planes frequently targeted Germany boats on the canal as well. During the entire period that the Ronnie and Ab were in hiding with the Bakels family, Hendrik van den Ham traveled frequently to see them as well as the Polak parents in their hiding places in order to exchange information. In the middle of 1944, the Polak parents had to leave their hide-out and van den Ham took them immediately to his home. Ronnie and Ab Polak saw the liberation in April 1945 with the Bakels. And likewise, their parents, Sodok and Suze, with the van den Hams. Leaving the Bakels was traumatic for Ronnie and Ab, as they had all become very close. All stayed in touch after the war, also after the emigration of Ronnie and Ab to Israel. On February 13, 2005, Yad Vashem recognized Hendrik van den Ham and Pietje Ham van den-Terpstra, Adrianus Bakels and Foekje Bakels-van der Veen as well as their daughter Eelkje Bakels, as Righteous Among the Nations. |
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