Arts Piet

Arts, Piet J. From 1940, the first year of the war, Piet Arts, a farmer from Sevenum, Limburg, was the organizer of the underground group that operated in the areas of Sevenum and Grubbenvorst. Due to the efforts of Miss Eugenie Boutet*, Piet later affiliated with the Westerweel* group and became their resident member in Sevenum. Over and above this commitment, Piet also ran a covert operation, hiding prisoners previously smuggled out of the Westerbork camp with families in Sevenum. In those days, Sevenum was a remote village with a population of only 3,000 inhabitants and the villagers were especially active in underground operations. It has been estimated that about 300 individuals found a safe haven there during the war. Piet coordinated the anti-German Resistance activities of the entire village. He collaborated with the underground in matters of registration, with the police who conspired not to give out information, and with officials of the postal service, who also agreed not to betray the activists and their plans. In 1938, Viennese-born Lilly Kettner (later Ticho), born in 1923, arrived in Holland on a Kindertransport. Initially, she worked in the crèche opposite the Hollandsche Schouwburg, from where hundreds of children were smuggled out to safe hideouts. Lilly, however, was deported to Westerbork, but escaped and, with Piet’s assistance, managed to hide in Sevenum. She was hidden for a while in the chicken coops on Piet’s farm. From this haven she was able to listen to BBC radio broadcasts in Dutch. Owing to Piet’s tireless and selfless efforts to save lives, Dov Paz, Rivka Cohen, Ruth Meyer, Rachel Lavie, Chaya Prague, Max Bischburg, Sophie Nussbaum (later Shulamith Ya’ari), the Winter family, and many more were spared the atrocities of the Nazi occupation. Sometime between late 1943 and early 1944, Piet himself was forced to go into hiding after it became apparent that the German police were pursuing him. After the war, Piet was honored by theunderground movement in Holland as well as by General Eisenhower, Deputy Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force. On March 22, 1977, Yad Vashem recognized Piet Arts as Righteous Among the Nations.