Oskam Bertus & Wilhelmina (Wolberink)

Oskam, Bertus Gerrit & Wilhelmina (Wolberink) In mid-December 1942, the Reverend Overduin* advised Simon and Sara (Selien) Brommet to leave their home immediately. That night, he returned to their home with his right-hand man, the farmer Roerink*, and four bicycles. “We left the house as it was,” Sara wrote in her testimony to Yad Vashem, “and rode to Bertus Oskam, a factory worker in Boekelo, Overijssel, whose family took us in with kindness and loving care. Under the circumstances, we couldn’t have wished for better.” In early 1944, the Germans thoroughly searched the Oskams’ house but, thanks to a perfectly constructed hideout, the Brommets were not discovered. “Nevertheless, we had to leave these marvelous people,” Sara wrote. “And after a couple of months, they took in some other Jews.” Sara survived the war thanks to the subsequent hospitality of Harmann and Saakje Bockma* of Heerlen, Limburg. Her husband, Simon, was caught and perished on March 3, 1945. On July 10, 1973, Yad Vashem recognized Bertus Gerrit Oskam and his wife, Wilhelmina Oskam-Wolberink, as Righteous Among the Nations.