Paulusma Paulus & Jenke (Tjeerdsma)

Paulusma, Paulus Paulusma--Tjeerdsma, Jenke Paulus Paulusma, a garage attendant, lived with his wife Jenke and their two children in the little village of Korte Hemmen, (prov. Friesland). As he thus had easy access to vehicles, he was asked by a local underground cell to use some of them to take Jews and later on downed allied pilots to various hiding places. And so he did. Among them was Rob de Vries, a fugitive from the Westerbork transit camp. Paulus took him to an address in Beesterzwaag, also in Friesland. Beyond moving Jews to safe havens, he and his wife Jenke hid a Jewish couple, Maurits and Suzanne van Leeuwen originally from Amsterdam, in their own home in the spring of 1943. The couple had been in hiding in Nijmegen, but needed to leave because of the danger of betrayal. Through a local reverend active in the underground group, the couple was referred to the Paulusmas. The van Leeuwen couple was given their own room. Under the bed was a temporary hiding place, although in case of a house search they would hide in a hole in the yard well - covered by grass. They took with them a special lamp in order to check the oxygen. The van Leeuwens were well-accepted in the Paulusma family and all enjoyed meals together. Their cover story was that they had fled because of lack of food in the west of the country. For the first few weeks, the van Leeuwens were able to contribute toward their living expenses, but soon their money ran out. Even so, the Paulusmas kept them until the middle of 1944 when rumors that Jews were hiding with them became too threatening and an alternative-hiding place needed to be found. Around September 1944, the Paulusma family welcomed Gotthilf Mayer into their home. He was a twenty-year-old, originally from Germany, who had been sent by his Jewish father to the Netherlands after the Kristallnacht pogrom in November 1938. He too was warmly welcomed and treated like a member of the family, helping out in the garage. On December 15,1944, a day Gotthilf happened not to be in the house, Paulus was arrested together with others from his resistance group. He was taken to the infamous Leeuwarden prison and from there to a work camp near Assen (prov. of Overijssel). He survived. The van Leeuwens as well as Gotthilf Mayer stayed in touch with the Paulusmas after the war. On July 30, 2000, Yad Vashem recognized Paulus Paulusma and Jenke Paulusma—Tjeerdsma, as Righteous Among the Nations.