Florissen Wibo

Florissen, Wibo In November 1943, Ans van Dam, a Resistance activist, offered to hide and care for three-year-old Miriam Dasberg, the daughter of Rabbi Nathan Dasberg of Hilversum. Twenty-five-year-old Ans, the daughter of a non-Jewish mother and a Jewish father who were friends of the Dasbergs, was a medical student. She took the young girl to a temporary lodging in Amsterdam. However, the place had proved to be a trap and Ans’s only concern was to escape with Miriam as quickly as possible. She contacted Mrs. Muurling* and arranged for 20-year-old Wibo Florissen and 17-year-old Hein Robert Korpershoek* to try to rescue the child. They went to the lodging in Amsterdam, disguised in hats and long coats, knocked at the door and shouted loudly for the occupants to open up, just as the German soldiers would have done. Wibo, acting especially forcefully, instructed the woman to wake the girl, dress her, and prepare her to be taken away. The operation was successful. They rescued the little girl and brought her back to Ans, who was waiting for them nearby. One week later Ans was arrested and then deported to Auschwitz, and from there transferred to other camps. Serving in the medical corps, she managed to survive the war. On October 11, 1987, Yad Vashem recognized Wibo Florissen as Righteous Among the Nations.