Hoefs Gerards & Riek

Hoefs, Gerard & Riek Clara Vromen, who was born on September 27, 1931, was living in The Hague with her parents when the war broke out. In 1943, after witnessing more than six months of mass deportations, the family decided to go into hiding, each in a different place. Twelve-year-old Clara was taken to various families. When the German police was on its way to arrest Clara together with some other children, underground member Gerard Hoefs took her into his home as an interim solution. Clara was only going to stay for two weeks, but that turned into two years. Clara remained with the Hoefses until the end of the war. Gerard and Riek Hoefs, who lived in the city of Utrecht, had two sons, aged five and nine. Gerard was a carpenter who worked hard to support his family. They never received any compensation for looking after Clara and they were sometimes hungry, but they always treated Clara with warmth. The family was Catholic and they always reminded her of her Judaism and made her read a passage from the Hebrew Bible every day. Clara’s cover story was that she was the daughter of Riek’s sister, who had married a Protestant against the family’s wishes and had therefore been disowned by her family. This story was believable because Clara, although she looked Jewish, did not look that different from her dark-haired foster family. Clara was reunited with her mother and brother after the war. Clara’s mother offered the Hoefses compensation for sheltering her daughter but they refused to take any. Clara stayed in close touch with the Hoefses after the war, even after she immigrated to Israel. On February 23, 1977, Yad Vashem recognized Gerard Hoefs and his wife, Riek Hoefs, as Righteous Among the Nations.