Ketel Pieternella

Ketel, Pieternella Ariaantje Pieternella Ariaantje Ketel, a lawyer and a key member of a Protestant Resistance group based in the city of Utrecht, concentrated her efforts on saving Jews from the Germans. Early on in the occupation, she turned the cellar of her two-story house into a workshop for forging identity cards together with her friends in the Resistance. In addition, she began to raise money for the maintenance of Jews in hiding. In the summer of 1942, she surprised Dr. Ger Kempe, a member of the Utrechts Kindercomité (UKC*, Utrecht Children's Committee), with a gift of the enormous amount of 1,600 guilders. This money covered the expenses of all the Jewish children hidden by the UKC for many weeks. In November 1942, when the Allegro-Swelheim family, who were visiting relatives in Utrecht, were unable to return home to Almelo, Pieternella found them a hiding place with the Landzaat sisters (recognized as Righteous Among the Nations). At the end of 1942, Ger Kempe asked her also to find a hiding place for Max Drukker, a psychology student from Utrecht. Pieternella convinced the Korver sisters (recognized as Righteous Among the Nations) to take him in, assuring them that she would provide false identity papers, ration cards, and whatever else was needed. Max would come and stay with Pieternella whenever a house search was imminent and when the sisters went on holiday. In 1942, Pieternella made contact with a number of Jewish women who were all being treated in the same ward of a Utrecht hospital, including Rosa Klausner. She promised them that if it ever became necessary she would protect them. When, in the spring of 1943, they heard that the Germans intended to deport all Jewish hospital patients to the east, they immediately contacted Pieternella. Despite the curfew, under cover of night, she took all seven women to her home, where they stayed with “Aunt Nel” for two years, until the end of the war. Rosa Klausner told Yad Vashem that in order to boost their morale, “Aunt Nel” made them dress up for meals, provided them with books and had them take English and French lessons. Klausner also described how their rescuer sold her jewelry and other valuables to buy food for her wards. The Germans became suspicious of Pieternella's activities and, as a result, there was often the threat of a house search. Each time, the women were taken temporarily to other addresses and then returned when the danger had passed. During the war, Pieternella also provided temporary shelter to Jews searching for a more permanent place to hide, and she kept on searching for people who would shelter fugitives, finding, among others, the Haitsma family (recognized as Righteous Among the Nations), who took in Rosa Klausner’s children. On liberation, Pieternella, who was very pious, gathered all the Jews that she had saved and organized a religious ceremony, thanking God for their salvation. She gave each person an envelope with money to help them re-establish their lives. On January 27, 1977, Yad Vashem recognized Pieternella Ariaantje Ketel as Righteous Among the Nations.