Baar Arent & Henderika (Vrieling)

Baar, Arent & Henderika (Vrieling) Arent Baar was station manager of a train station in Hulshorst, Gelderland. His home was a short distance from the railway line for the center of Holland and actually stood on the edge of the platform, a fact which helped Jews and others without documents disappear unnoticed into his house when they got off the train. The Baar home, where Arent lived with his wife and three children, was also a permanent hiding place for many Jews. Henny de Leeuw, a Jewish woman from Amsterdam, was one of those hidden by the Baars. Henny had worked as a clerk in a tobacco factory and was helped by her friends at work to find a hiding place. During the war she turned to the Baars three times for refuge in their home, the first time for a month, then for four months, and in 1944 again for three months. Each time they took her in willingly, but she was forced to leave when the place became too dangerous. When the other hiding places became dangerous as well, she returned to the Baars. The Baars’ daughter remembers several Jews who stayed at their house on their way to permanent hiding places, and remembers Henny in particular. Henny kept in contact with the Baars even after Arent’s death. The Baars’ son was shot and killed by the Germans in March 1945. On November 20, 1986, Yad Vashem recognized Arent Baar and his wife, Henderika Baar-Vrieling, as Righteous Among the Nations.