Willem Pieter van Dijl
| Geslacht: | Man | |
| Vader: | Barend van Dijl | |
| Moeder: | Helena Anna Frerichs | |
| Geboren: | 12 Apr 1915 | Assen |
| Overleden: | 16 Nov 1998 | Voorburg |
| Religie: | Ned. Hervormd | |
| Beroep: | consul in de diplomatieke dienst | |
| Aantekeningen: | Last Name: Dijl van First Name: Willem Pieter Alias: WIM Date of Birth: 12/04/1915 Rescuer's fate: survived camp inmate Nationality: THE NETHERLANDS Gender: Male Profession: STUDENT Place during the war: Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands Rescue Place: Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands Rescue mode: Arranging shelter Providing forged documents File number: File from the Collection of the Righteous Among the Nations Department (M.31.2/8256) Willem (Wim) van Dijl, a student from the city of Utrecht, gave his identity card to his friend Katz and then reported that he had lost it. Soon after, he decided to start printing false identity cards for Jews. In the meantime, Willem placed announcements in the newspapers for lodgings. There was no shortage of rooms and Wim regularly received positive replies. He went to see each one and during the course of his meeting with the landlord always provoked a political discussion. The landlord usually stated his views and if he felt that the landlord was a collaborator he left the premises. If it emerged that the landlord opposed the Nazi regime, Wim continued the conversation until eventually he revealed that he was looking for a room to hide one or more Jews. The landlords were often pleased to take in Jews for the normal cost of lodging. Thus Wim, who used different aliases like Peters or Bergsma, found many hiding places for Jews. Among the people he arranged shelter for were Philip Bloemendal, Eugene van Herpen, the Gobets family, and Stephen Steinberg. Wim never asked for any financial compensation for his efforts. He similarly provided those in hiding with food, money, ration cards, and even moral support at no cost. On August 27, 1943, Wim was arrested. A full range of dactylography equipment which was used for forging documents, was discovered in his apartment. He was sent to the Oranjehotel in Scheveningen, then to Vught, and finally to Dachau, from where the Americans freed him on April 30, 1945. Most of the people whom Wim helped did not keep in touch with him after the war. On October 25, 1998, Yad Vashem recognized Willem Pieter van Dijl as Righteous Among the Nations. |
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