Besse Pietje

Besse, Pietje In February 1943, Emiel and Elza Polak and their two children, Jacob and Betje, received a notice to register for deportation to Germany. Obediently, they packed their belongings and prepared to leave. However, Frans Hinlopen* arrived at their home and told them to accompany him to a hiding place. On the same day Frans’s wife, Dien Hinlopen-Nanninga, was arrested after Jews were found hidden in their home, so the Polaks could not go to his house. Thus, Emiel was taken to Henriëtte and Kleijs Kroon* in Amsterdam; Elza went to Henriëtte’s brother and sister-in-law, Piet and Geertruide van Dijk*, in Apeldoorn; Jacob spent the war years hidden with 39 different families all over the Netherlands; and Betje (later Hadassa Rozen) went to Pietje Besse in Hillegom. Pietje’s husband worked abroad and she lived with her one-year-old son. Four young Jewish men also found refuge in her home. One of them, Menahem Rozen, was Betje’s fiancé. The other three left after two months, but Menahem and Betje stayed with Pietje until a Dutch police officer warned Pietje that house searches were expected in Hillegom and that if she was hiding any Jews she should move them. Betje went to Cornelis and Amanda Dekker* in Amersfoort while Menahem went to work in Germany with the papers of a non-Jewish man who had gone into hiding. On March 18, 1976, Yad Vashem recognized Pietje Besse as Righteous Among the Nations.