Mansum van Arie

Mansum van, Arie Considering it their Christian duty, Derk van Assen*, a bailiff, and Arie van Mansum, a salesman, started helping Jews early on in the war in the largely Catholic city of Maastricht, Limburg close to the border with Germany, where they lived. Arie, who lived with his mother and sister Margaretha, had begun helping Jewish refugees from Germany in 1938. During the first years of the war, Arie worked for two companies all over Holland, which enabled him to travel freely and escort a Jewish family to Apeldoorn, Gelderland, when asked to do so by Derk in 1941. After the deportation of Jews began in 1942, Derk and Arie established a small group of like-minded people in their town. Their aim was to undertake various activities, including distributing the illegal newspaper Vrij Nederland, helping pilots, forging documents, escorting escaped prisoners of war, and helping people in hiding, most of whom were Jews. Arie and his co-workers managed to rescue several dozen Jews. At the outset, they used food permits belonging to Jews in hiding to obtain ration cards and stole the required identity papers from public places. Eventually, Arie established contact with Gerrit van der Veen’s* PBC (Identity Cards Center) and received 200 ration cards a month from J. J. Zanders, a distribution official in Heerlen, Limburg. On February 22, 1943, Arie helped Emile and Franzi (Goldschmidt) Weslij, a Jewish couple who had fled from Germany in the 1930s, and their two children, Leonie, aged five, and Leon, aged three, to go into hiding. Annie and Bouwe Prins in Heerlerheide, Limburg, who worked closely with Jan Bosch*, a fellow strictly Calvinist Christian, took in Emile and Franzi. Leonie and Leon went to stay with a family in nearby Voerendaal. Arie regularly brought them ration cards, and after he found out that Emile and Franzi were sleeping on a narrow bed, he arranged a double foldaway bed for them. Arie always did his utmost to cheer up the fugitives and keep thembusy. He also arranged visits for families who were not hiding together, and if the person traveling looked Jewish he covered his or her face with bandages. Arie later made contact, via J. S. H. Lokerman*, with miners, SDAP Socialist Party, and trade union members, who helped him wherever possible. In the spring of 1943, Arie made contact with Piet Meerburg* of the Amsterdam Student Group, and for the next few months female couriers escorted around 60 Jewish children to South Limburg. Arie himself picked the children up from Sittard station and sometimes even went to Amsterdam to pick them up. Arie’s activities did not go unnoticed by the Sipo, especially when he started working with the organization for helping pilots established in Heerlen by Ch. M. H. J. Bongaerts. After some time, three V-Manner (secret service) agents infiltrated the group and Derk van Assen was put in prison. All attempts to free him failed and he was executed by a firing squad on September 14, 1943. After this, the net around Arie tightened. On October 1, he turned up in Heerlen to deliver money and ration cards to a Jewish group in hiding that was being looked after by Gerard Fleischeuer*, the town clerk of Oirsbeek, Limburg. The three V-Manner agents arrested him at the station and he was charged with helping Jews and with attempting to rescue Derk. On November 16, 1943, Fleischeuer and ten of his Jewish fugitives were also arrested. While in prison, Arie’s sister Margaretha van Mansum* took over his work. On July 27, 1944, Arie was put on trial before the Luftgaugericht in the city of Utrecht. Two months later, he was acquitted due to lack of evidence. He immediately joined the Resistance movement in Utrecht and in February 1945 was arrested again and sent to prison until the liberation in May 1945. Of the approximately 150 Jews that Arie and his sister helped during the war, only three were betrayed and murdered. On January 2, 1969, Yad Vashem recognized Arie van Mansum as RighteousAmong the Nations.