Streek van de Hendrik & Jacoba (Boeve)

Streek van de, Hendrik & Jacoba (Boeve) Fifteen-year-old Leni Duyzend was living with her parents in Amsterdam in May 1943, although her older sister had already gone into hiding. The Duyzends decided that they too had to find hiding places in order to escape deportation. The family was put in touch with underground contacts in Amersfoort, who brought Leni to the van de Streek family in Oldenbroek, Gelderland. Hendrik and Jacoba (Jouke) van de Streek had two children, aged seven and ten. Despite their modest income as farmers, the couple felt they had a moral obligation to help the persecuted. Outside the immediate family, none of the van de Streek relatives were aware of Hendrik and Jacoba’s illegal guest. Leni had to stay indoors at all times. Besides Leni, the van de Streeks also took in a Jewish boy, Fred Lazarus, and a girl, W. de Kadt (later Meijers). In the winter of 1943--1944, the situation became so precarious that Leni and Fred were moved for about three weeks to a tent in the fields behind the farm, which had been prepared earlier. When the immediate danger passed, they were brought back into the van de Streek home. In July 1944, someone in the village informed the German police that Hendrik and Jacoba were harboring Jews and a house search ensued. Jacoba made Leni and the others run out into the fields just before the officers arrived. Leni and Fred stayed out there for several weeks, and local Resistance activists made sure that they were warm and had enough food. At that point, Hendrik went into hiding and Jacoba moved with her children to the home of her parents, who were hiding a young Jewish man. She remained with them until the liberation. After the war, Leni was reunited with her parents and sister. Leni kept in close touch with the van de Streeks even after they emigrated to the United States in 1948. On January 2, 1991, Yad Vashem recognized Hendrik van de Streek and his wife, Jacoba van de Streek-Boeve, as Righteous Among the Nations.