Molendijk Geertje (Klijnsma)

Molendijk, Geertje (Klijnsma) During the war, Geertje Klijnsma was engaged to Arie van Mansum* and together they escorted Jewish children from Amsterdam to safe addresses in the south of Holland. The children they helped were hidden with different families and Arie made sure that they all received ration cards, money, and new hideouts whenever necessary. At the end of 1943, the Germans caught Arie and sent him to a concentration camp. Undeterred, Geertje continued with the work on her own. At the end of 1942, 18-year-old Ignacy Butterteig (later Yitzchak Nir) went into hiding in Bussum, North Holland. He met Geertje in early 1944 when he was hiding with the Koops* family. Geertje lived in the same neighborhood as the Koops. Arie had been providing Ignacy with hiding places and false documents but since he was imprisoned, Geertje took over his duties and provided the fugitive teenager with food coupons and money. During the war, Geertje also helped take care of a two-week-old baby girl, Margaretha Leijden van Amstel, who had been born to Anita in Amsterdam in June 1943. The underground brought the child to shelter with various families in the south of Holland and Geertje assisted with the baby’s safekeeping. At the end of the war, Anita came to collect her child from Geertje. For the duration of the war, Geertje continued with the work she had begun with Arie out of a love for her fellow human beings, religious conviction, and a hatred of the German occupiers. On February 21, 1988, Yad Vashem recognized Geertje Molendijk-Klijnsma as Righteous Among the Nations.