Wit de Henk & Carrie (Wieringa)

Wit de, Henk & Carrie (Wieringa) During the time she was in hiding, Miriam van Praagh was forced to change hiding places numerous times. With the help of her uncle and his non-Jewish wife, Joop and Annie van Praagh*, she was able to find safe places. Through them, she arrived at the home of Henk and Carrie de Wit, who lived in Delft, South Holland. Twelve other Jewish people were already in hiding at the de Wit home when she arrived there, many of them from the van Praagh family. All those in hiding lived on the top floor of the house, while the de Wit family slept on the main floor, where they had a vegetable store. The conditions of concealment were similar to those in the famous case of Anne Frank. There was even a cupboard that blocked the entrance to a secret hiding place in case of a house search. Henk and Carrie ensured that those in hiding all had food to eat and they would visit their “guests” daily in order to bolster their morale. Henk and Carrie were staunchly anti-Nazi and demonstrated their revulsion toward Nazi policy by hiding Jews in their home without payment. Miriam remained at the de Wit home for six months, until Henk found out that someone had informed on what was happening at the house. Everyone managed to escape except Miriam’s father and uncle. They were arrested, together with Henk and Carrie de Wit. The de Wit couple, however, were released shortly afterwards. On May 28, 1978, Yad Vashem recognized Henk de Wit and his wife, Carrie de Wit-Wieringa, as Righteous Among the Nations.