Henriette Berdenis van Berlekom

Geslacht: Vrouw
Vader: Lambertus Hendrik Berdenis van Berlekom
Moeder: Emilie Wilhelmina Adrienne van der Vegt
Geboren: 9 Sept 1920 Hoogeveen
Overleden: 23 Apr 2010 Erickson, Manitoba, Canada
Aantekeningen: Macey Henriette (1920 - 2010 )
Personal Information
Last Name: Macey
First Name: Henriette
Berdenis
Maiden Name: Berlekom van
Alias: JET
Date of Birth: 09/09/1920
Date of death: 01/01/2010
Rescuer's fate: survived
Nationality: THE NETHERLANDS
Gender: Female
Profession: CHILDRENS HOME OWNER
Organization/ Religious order: Utrechts Kindercomite
Place during the war: Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands
Rescue Place: Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands
Rescue mode: Hiding
Arranging shelter
Other
File number: File from the Collection of the Righteous Among the Nations Department (M.31.2/5114)
Commemoration
Date of Recognition: 11/02/1992
Righteous Commemorated with Tree/Wall of Honor: Wall of Honor
Ceremony organized by Israeli diplomatic delegation in: The Hague, Netherlands
Ceremony held in Yad Vashem: Yes
Honorary Citizenship of the State of Israel: Yes
Rescued Persons
Ehrlich, Herbert
Schavrien, Deborah
Schavrien, Judith
Rescue Story
Lier van, Geertruida E.
Macey, Henriëtte Berdenis (van Berlekom)
Geertruida (Truitje) van Lier was studying law in her hometown of Utrecht when the Germans invaded Holland. She postponed her studies and after six months of underground work, She and her friend Henriëtte (Jet) Berdenis van Berlekom* established a day-care center, which they named “Kindjeshaven” (Shelter for Children), in Utrecht. When the deportations began in July 1942, Truitje and Jet cleared as much space as possible for extra Jewish children, who came to the center before being moved to permanent shelters elsewhere. Most of the children who came to the center had been smuggled out of Amsterdam by members of the UKC. When this group was short of safe addresses, it could always rely on the Kindjeshaven to provide temporary refuge. Through the center, Truitje and Jet helped dozens of Jewish children. Two of them, Judith and Deborah Schavrien, twins, stayed at the Kindjeshaven for the duration of the war. Whenever there was a raid on the crèche, Truitje and Jet threatened to evict all the children, which included a number of illegitimate children fathered by German soldiers. This would cause the soldiers to be reprimanded by the Ortskommandant who functioned as the guardian of these children. This threat usually put them off. One of the low points was when Herbert Ehrlich, a Jewish infant whom Truitje and Jet looked after for nine months, died in March 1944. Even his illegal hospitalization could not cure him of pneumonia. In late 1944, the Sipo started looking for Truitje. She could no longer work at the Kindjeshaven and so she went into hiding with her fiancé in Culemborg, Gelderland, where she remained until the liberation. In the meantime, Jet continued working at the center until February 1945 and then moved the children to various safe houses.
On February 11, 1992, Yad Vashem recognized Geertruida E. van Lier and Henriëtte Berdenis Macey-van Berlekom as Righteous Among the Nations.

Gezin 1

Huwelijkspartner: John Ainslie Macey
Huwelijk: 3 Jan 1946 De Bilt