Veth Bastiaan & Dina (Slotboom)

Veth, Bastiaan & Dina (Slotboom) In 1942, when the mass deportations began, Nettie van Tijn (later Chana Duday) was the principal of a Jewish school in Eindhoven, North Brabant. When Nettie met Bastiaan (Bas) and Dina Veth, who were active underground members, she asked Bas for a hiding address. He provided her with one but Nettie did not use it because she believed that she was safe from deportation as long as there were pupils in her school. Her mother and two nieces did, however, go straight to the addresses that Bas provided. Nettie was able to maintain her position as the school principal until June 1943. Through Bas Veth, Nettie found a safe hideaway with the Hendriks family, where her mother was already sheltered. Bas was a simple laborer and a socialist with a broad outlook. He began his Resistance activities in 1940, immediately after the German invasion of the Netherlands. His goal was to help Jews and other oppressed people. He and his wife desired no personal gain, only the realization of their ideals. With Bas’s help, Nettie found several hiding places in Eindhoven. When it became too dangerous for her to remain in Eindhoven, Bas arranged a hideout for her in the city of Utrecht, where she stayed until the end of the war. Bas also helped Nettie’s nieces, Els Engel and Rivka Sonnenfeld, whose parents and younger sister were deported and murdered, by finding them safe hideaways. They too survived the war. When Nettie’s mother started working as a maid, Dina Veth visited her frequently in an effort to keep her spirits up. On December 14, 1965, Yad Vashem recognized Bastiaan Veth and his wife, Dina Veth-Slotboom, as Righteous Among the Nations.