Petronella Hendrika Johanna Vonk
| Geslacht: | Vrouw | |
| Vader: | Evert Vonk | |
| Moeder: | Gerardina Christina Broer | |
| Geboren: | 7 Juli 1901 | Gameren |
| Aantekeningen: | Last Name: Doets First Name: Petronella Hendrica Johanna Maiden Name: Vonk Alias: NEL Date of Birth: 07/07/1902 Rescuer's fate: survived Nationality: THE NETHERLANDS Gender: Female Profession: FARMER Place during the war: Loosdrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands Rescue Place: Loosdrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands Rescue mode: Hiding File number: File from the Collection of the Righteous Among the Nations Department (M.31.2/11465) Metta Lande (later, Shulamit Roethler), was born in Vienna in 1924. Her happy youth changed after the Anschluss of Austria in March 1938, when only a few months later her father was arrested and deported to Dachau and Buchenwald. Her mother immediately began to look for ways to get her then 14-year-old daughter out of the country, and so Metta arrived in the Netherlands with one of the Kindertransports. Her brother was brought to the Land of Israel. Metta soon joined one of the hachsharot (pioneer camps) in Loosdrecht (prov. Utrecht) where youngsters prepare themselves for agricultural life in the Land of Israel. In the summer of 1942, with the onset of the deportations of Jews from the Netherlands, these youngsters had contacts with members of the Westerweel Group of non-Jews who focused on trying to find hiding places or help them flee through Belgium and France to Spain and then on to the Land of Israel. Through them, Metta was given false identity papers and then taken in August 1942 to Griet and Hendrik Wentink in Zutphen (prov. Gelderland). The Wentinks were an older, strict Calvinist couple, both in their early seventies, who had lost their own children to various illnesses. No one was to know of her presence with the Wentinks, so Metta had to stay indoors at all times, hiding in the washing room when unexpected visitors came by. In May 1943, about nine months after her arrival, strong rumors circulated that they had a Jew in hiding. In the middle of the night, Griet Wentink took Metta to Dirk and Petronella (Nel) Doets in Loosdrecht. The Doetses were farmers, whom Metta knew as she had earlier worked for them during her hachshara program. They had two young children, who knew Metta and called her Aunt Metta, with no questions asked. Metta was given a room in the attic. Once, when there was an unexpected visitor, Metta hid under the table. The four-year-old Doets daughter did not understand this scene and started asking questions. Mettas presence had thus become too dangerous and she was moved on to the van Nieuwenhuizen* family in Hilversum (prov. North-Holland), where she stayed until January 1944, when members of the Westerweel Group succeeded in smuggling her out to the Land of Israel. During Mettas time in hiding with the Doetses, they frequently sent food packages to her grandparents in Lwow, Poland, even though they never received a response -- the grandparents had most probably already been murdered in one of the death camps. On October 27, 2008, Yad Vashem recognized Hendrik Jan Wentink and Grietje Wentink-Vos as well as Dirk Gijsbertus Doets and Petronella Hendrica Johanna Doets-Vonk as Righteous Among the Nations. |
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Gezin 1
| Huwelijkspartner: | Dirk Gijsbertus Doets | geb. 1899 |
| Huwelijk: | 28 MEI 1929 | Loosdrecht |