Romviel Dirk

Romviel, Dirk Dirk Romviel (b. 1899) lived in Hilversum, in the Dutch province of North Holland, during the Second World War. He was a widower and lived alone in a remote little house that had a garden and a small shed in which he kept some goats. He earned a living by distributing bread. One day in 1942 Dirk learned that two sons of Jewish acquaintances were looking for a safe hiding place. The German anti-Jewish measures had increased so much that Abraham and Gerard Cohen feared for their lives. Dirk offered them shelter in his little home in Hilversum. The brothers came to Dirk on July 15, 1942. From that day on the house was slowly filled with relatives of the brothers and of Abraham’s girlfriend, Rebecca Corper. In 1943 there were 17 people staying with Dirk Romviel, and the house was very crowded. It was not easy to feed so many mouths, but Dirk received some money from the hiders, with which he tried to care for them and feed them. During the hiding period Abraham Cohen wrote a diary in which he described daily life during that time. But one day this diary abruptly was stopped. It was April 4, 1944, and the notorious Dutch traitor Ganzevles and the Sicherheitsdienst (SD, the intelligence agency of the SS) broke into Dirk Romviel’s house. Dirk managed to escape, but all the Jewish hiders were discovered and arrested. Dirk Romviel survived the war, but of the 17 people hiding there, only Abraham Cohen and Rebecca Corper survived. They were married after the liberation and adopted Lowietje, Rebecca’s nephew, whose parents had perished during the war. On November 24, 2014, Yad Vashem recognized Dirk Romviel as Righteous Among the Nations.