Hamming Roelof & Hendrikje (Lanning); Daughter: Wilhelmina

Hamming, Roelof & Hendrikje (Lanning) & Wilhelmina In September 1943, the Hammings---father Roelof, mother Hendrikje, and daughter Wilhelmina (Mien)---who were Protestants living in Nijverdal, Overijssel, took in six-year-old Salomon Vleeschhouwer. Loulou Ouderkerk, one of the most prominent female couriers of the Trouw* group, brought Salomon to them. The fact that their son, Ite Hamming (alias Piet Betuwe), was being pursued for his activities as chief distributor for Trouw in Gelderland constituted a further risk but they did not see this as an obstacle. Even when Ite was arrested and taken to the Amersfoort prison camp, the Hammings insisted that Salomon stay put. Ite survived the camp. As her parents were quite elderly, Mien Hamming assumed the task of looking after Salomon, who stayed with them until the liberation, when he was reunited with his family, who had all survived the war. The Trouw group had also taken care of his brother and sisters, and his parents had found a place to hide through other channels. During the war, in his clerical capacity and as a man of principle, Reverend Roelof Hamming served as a focal point of the humanitarian resistance in Nijverdal. Members of his congregation came to him with the most unusual requests for help. In one case, Herman Flim*, unaware of Reverend Hamming’s work for the Trouw group, turned to him in August 1944 with a request for 80 addresses for Jewish children from the south of the country. Hamming realized that this problem could not be solved locally and so he wrote letters of introduction to his colleagues in Heerde, Gelderland, and Lemelerveld, Overijssel. Through a joint effort, the required addresses were found. On February 22, 1981, Yad Vashem recognized Reverend Roelof Hamming, his wife Hendrikje Hamming-Lanning, and their daughter, Wilhelmina Hamming, as Righteous Among the Nations.