Gerrit Ciggaar

Geslacht:	Man
Vader:	Pieter Ciggaar
Moeder:	Pieternella Klasina Buitelaar
Geboren:	30 Dec 1895	Sassenheim
Overleden:	4 OKT 1967	Sassenheim
Aantekeningen:	Last Name: Ciggaar First Name: Gerrit Date of Birth: 01/01/1896 Date of death: 04/10/1967 Rescuer's fate: survived Nationality: THE NETHERLANDS Gender: Male Profession: FARMER Place during the war: Sassenheim, Zuidholland, The Netherlands Rescue Place: Sassenheim, Zuidholland, The Netherlands Rescue mode: Hiding File number: File from the Collection of the Righteous Among the Nations Department (M.31.2/11764) The Jewish Klein family, Jozua and his wife Rozi, née Mendels, lived in The Hague with their three young children, Rita (b. 1933), Ingrid (b. 1938) and baby Benjamin Leopold, born in July 1940, just after the occupation of the Netherlands that May. Jozua Klein was a butcher. At the beginning of 1941, the family moved to Rozi’s parents in Leiden to run their boardinghouse, when the parents were ordered to leave the city as foreign Jews. As the income from the boardinghouse was insufficient for all, Jozua tried to supplement the family income by peddling on the black market. In March 1942, people informed on him, he was arrested and sent to the local concentration camp, Amersfoort. From there, he was deported to Mauthausen, where he perished in July 1942. Rozi, left with the sole responsibility for their three children, could hardly manage. When her neighbors Hijme and Emilie Stoffels* heard on March 16, 1943 that all Jews from Leiden were to be deported the next day, they immediately warned the Kleins and managed to convince Rozi to immediately go into hiding with her children. The Stoffels took them first to temporary places, and then Emilie Stoffels took Benjamin to Gerrit and Leentje Ciggaar in the nearby town of Sassenheim (prov. South-Holland) for just a short time. The Ciggaars had hid others before on a temporary basis. The temporary hiding turned into a permanent refuge until the liberation of the town in May 1945. The Ciggaars were farmers and had grown children who still lived at home. Initially, Benjamin, by then three years old, cried a lot and screamed for his mother. Slowly, however, he got used to his new environment and was given much attention and love by all. Daughter Guus, especially, took on the role of substitute mother. The toddler was supposedly a from bombed out Rotterdam, whose parents had been killed. Food was always available at the farm, and, as a result, German soldiers would often come and ask for cheese, butter and milk. At those occasions, the 16-year–old Ciggaar son who was eligible for forced labor (Arbeitseinsatz), would immediately get out of sight. Benjamin’s sister Rita, who had been taken to another address in the area, joined her little brother at the Ciggaars for a number of weeks when her address had temporarily become too dangerous. Rozi, also in hiding in the area, found out where her little son was hidden and could not withstand the urge to see him, which she did a number of times; This created an extreme risk for all, as there was real danger of betrayal. Luckily she was not detected on her visits. In March 1945, with Allied bombings in the area a daily occurrence, the Ciggaar home was hit, and grandfather Ciggaar was wounded. Some cattle were also hit. The Ciggaars thus moved to temporary lodgings in the town, taking little Benny with them. Benny’s sisters and mother survived the war as well. Separation from the Ciggaars, whom Benny, by then five years old, had become to consider his real parents, was extremely traumatic. The Kleins moved back to Leiden and kept in touch with the Ciggaars, until their emigration to the United States in 1952. Contact was lost, until Benny returned to Europe as an American soldier stationed in Germany, and went to visit the Ciggaars. On January 13, 2010, Yad Vashem recognized Gerrit Ciggaar and Leentje Ciggaar-Verhaar as Righteous Among the Nations.

Gezin 1

Huwelijkspartner:	Leentje Verhaar	geb. 22 Jan 1901 overl. 26 MEI 1991
Huwelijk:	18 MEI 1922	Oegstgeest