Boerma Sophia (Derksen)

Boerma, Sophia Hendrika Francisca Maria (Derksen) Maurice Meijer was five years old when the Gestapo caught him, his brother, and his parents in Amsterdam in mid-1942. He and his brother were separated from their parents and taken to a Jewish orphanage. The following week, German soldiers again seized the brothers and two days later they were put on a transport for deportation when Mr. Grootkerk, a Jewish underground worker, succeeded in getting Maurice off the train and took him to a hiding place. After being forced to change locations several times, Maurice finally arrived at the home of Sophia Boerma-Derksen in Bilthoven, Utrecht, in early 1943, where she was living with her husband and their three children. Sophia told people that Maurice was a refugee from Rotterdam whose parents’ home had been destroyed during the bombardment. In addition to hiding Maurice, Sophia was also much involved with the underground. She helped look for hiding places and provided ration cards to those hidden. She worked alongside several Jewish underground activists, who were all discovered and executed by the Germans. It was only by luck that Sophia escaped arrest, and she continued to shelter Maurice despite the danger to her life and the lives of her family. Sophia simply felt that she had to help the child. He was treated very well in her home and Sophia looked upon him as one of her own children. She had made no financial arrangements with Maurice’s parents, who had been transported to a death camp and whose exact whereabouts were unknown. On January 4, 1978, Yad Vashem recognized Sophia Hendrika Francisca Maria Boerma-Derksen as Righteous Among the Nations.