Willem Johannes Hubertus Coenen
| Geslacht: | Man | |
| Vader: | Hubertus Coenen | |
| Moeder: | Cornelia Maria Catharina Smeets | |
| Geboren: | 10 Juni 1910 | Swalmen |
| Overleden: | 26 Juni 1996 | onbekend |
| Aantekeningen: | Last Name: Coenen First Name: Willem Johannes Hubertus Date of Birth: 10/06/1910 Date of death: 26/06/1996 Rescuer's fate: survived Nationality: THE NETHERLANDS Gender: Male Place during the war: Emst, Gelderland, The Netherlands Rescue Place: Emst, Gelderland, The Netherlands, Amsterdam, Noordholland, The Netherlands Rescue mode: Hiding Supplying basic goods File number: File from the Collection of the Righteous Among the Nations Department (M.31.2/11353) Soon after the occupation of the Netherlands in May 1940, Willem and Katharina Coenen were drawn into resistance activities. They were a young couple still without children. Initially they were active in the vicinity of their own village of Emst (prov. Gelderland). After the measures isolating Jews from civil society, the Coenens expanded their activities to Amsterdam, where the majority of the Dutch Jewish population lived. They started distributing food from their rural area to needy Jews in the center of the city, and with the ongoing roundups in the city, they became acutely aware of the dangers for the Jews. They decided to extend their help and take Jews back to their own home to find hiding places for them. One day in the spring of 1943, Katharina took back the Horn family, who had been at her own home and was staying at a temporary address where Katharina came with food. This involved a total of seven people: the parents, Moszek (b. 1903) and Elizabeth (b. 1904), and their children, Herman (b. 1928), Selma (b. 1932), Leo (b. 1934), Jacques (b. 1936) and Betty (b. 1941). Katharina, therefore, had to go about it carefully and have them moved in smaller groups. The Coenens created living space for all in the attic and managed to keep and feed them there for an entire year. During that period, Katharina, who was fluent in German, often functioned as intermediary with German soldiers stationed in the village and thus had created some level of trust with them. However, at the beginning of 1944, rumors became so intense that the Coenens had Jews in hiding, that both the Horn family as well as Katharina herself with her newborn baby left the house. A new hiding address was located for two of the Horns, but the others joined a group of Jews who were hiding in a nearby wood. The German authorities knew that Jews were hiding in the area, and carried out frequent searches in the forest. During one such sweep, Moszek Horn was discovered. He was subsequently deported and succumbed somewhere in Eastern Europe just before the end of the war in May 1945. The mother, Elizabeth Horn, and the children all survived. They returned to Amsterdam and stayed in close touch with the Coenens thereafter. On June 22, 2008, Yad Vashem recognized Willem J.H. Coenen and Katharina Coenen-Haverkamp as Righteous Among the Nations. |
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Gezin 1
| Huwelijkspartner: | Katharina Haverkamp | geb. 20 Apr 1914 overl. 6 Juli 2014 |
| Huwelijk: | XXXX | onbekend |