Beertje van den Burg

Geslacht: Vrouw
Vader: Roelof van den Burg
Moeder: Gerritje Rosina de Vries
Geboren: 18 Aug 1892 De Bilt
Religie: Ned. Hervormd
Aantekeningen: Last Name: Burg van der
First Name: Beertje
Rescuer's fate: survived
Nationality: THE NETHERLANDS
Gender: Female
Profession: TEXTILE FACTORY WORKER
Place during the war: Ede, Gelderland, The Netherlands
Rescue Place: Ede, Gelderland, The Netherlands
Rescue mode: Hiding
File number: File from the Collection of the Righteous Among the Nations Department (M.31.2/835)
In October 1942, when the Herz family---parents, two sons, and grandparents---were living in Haarlem, their neighbors Ernst and Miep Thuéré* convinced them to go into hiding rather than report to labor camps in the east. The Thueres could not hide any people in their own home but recommended other addresses to those in need, in particular the address of Wilhelmina Lucie Thuéré* (Ernst’s sister) and her friend Beertje van der Burg. These two ladies lived in a big house in Ede, Gelderland. Beertje worked in a textile factory and Lucie was a nurse. Mr. and Mrs. Herz were the first members of the family to arrive at the ladies’ home, on October 15, 1942. Their sons, Max and Johan, arrived there in March 1943. Some time later, another Jewish couple, Wim and Eva van Spieghel, also found refuge with Beertje and Lucie. The two brave ladies hid the Jews for a total of 30 months, until the liberation of the area in April 1945. Ede was a dangerous place to hide Jews. The mayor of the town was a Nazi sympathizer and he lived nearby; the ladies’ next door neighbor was the German governor. To make matters worse, Beertje and Lucie were forced to accommodate ten German soldiers in their home for a three-week period in November 1944. The German soldiers occupied the first floor of the house and the six Jews hid on the second. The ladies’ humanitarian principles moved them to continue sheltering the fugitives even when their lives and the lives of their wards were in danger. During the last winter of the war, food was scarce but Beertje nevertheless did everything possible to provide for her charges.
On September 2, 1973, Yad Vashem recognized Beertje van der Burg as Righteous Among the Nations.