Hinlopen Frans & Geurdina (Nanninga)

Hinlopen, Frans & Geurdina Alberta (Nanninga) When Elza and Emiel Polak and their family were called up for deportation to the east, their acquaintance Frans Hinlopen of Haarlem, North Holland, a Resistance activist, persuaded them not to go. That same day, Frans’s wife, Geurdina (Dina), a history teacher, was arrested after Jews were found hiding in their house. Therefore, Elza was taken to Geertruida van Dijk-Nooter* and Emiel hid with Kleijs and Henriette Kroon*. Their daughter, Betje (later Hadassa Rozen), was taken in by Pietje Besse*. Betje’s brother, Jacob, was hidden at a number of addresses, 39 in all, from January 1943 until the end of the war in May 1945. One of the places he stayed at for a few weeks was the Hinlopen home, where there were five other Jews hiding at the time. Frans and Dina organized a large underground network of friends and neighbors to help Jews find places to hide. After her arrest, Dina was sent to prison for a month and then to a concentration camp for six months. Frans himself went into hiding after Dina’s arrest but did not abandon his illegal activities. Both of them survived the war. On June 26, 1980, Yad Vashem recognized Frans Hinlopen and his wife, Geurdina Alberta Hinlopen-Nanninga, as Righteous Among the Nations.