Spinder Siemen & Antje (Schepen van)

Spinder, Siemen & Antje (van Schepen) High school student Jacques Butterteig had been living with his parents and brother in Maastricht when he was hospitalized in November 1942. While he was recuperating, his family was deported to Auschwitz, where they perished on February 26, 1943. Jacques (later Yitzhak Nir) was visited by a stranger named Arie van Mansum* who convinced him to go into hiding. Van Mansum arranged to meet the boy at the train station in Heerlen, equipped him with false identity papers, and took him to a temporary hiding place. In early 1943, Jacques was brought to the house of Siemen (Simon) and Antje (Annie) Spinder in the village of Treebeek, Limburg. The Spinders were a devout Calvinist mining family living in a predominantly Roman Catholic area. They were aware of the risks they were taking by sheltering Jacques but they felt it was their Christian duty to help him. The underground provided the Spinders with some money toward the fugitive’s upkeep. Jacques shared a room with their two boys, but had to remain indoors at all times since no one else knew of his presence there. In January 1944, a neighbor became suspicious and it was decided that Jacques should leave. Arie van Mansum came to pick him up and escorted him to Albert and Aukje Koops* in nearby Brunssum, where he stayed until the liberation in September 1944. On January 2, 1969, Yad Vashem recognized Siemen Spinder and his wife, Antje Spinder-van Schepen, as Righteous Among the Nations.