Bandel Martinus & Johanna (Liet)

Bandel, Martinus Hendrikus & Johanna Berendina (Liet) In mid-1942, members of a local underground group took 14-old Paul Ermann and his younger brother, Guenther (Gary), aged eight, to be hidden by Geertruida and Evert Zweers* in Renswoude, Utrecht. The boys’ parents were hidden at another location. The Zweers were also hiding ten-year-old Leo van Gelderen. In April 1943, when Paul and Guenther’s parents were betrayed to the authorities, the Zweers thought it best for everyone’s safety to move the children to Geertruida’s sister, Johanna Bandel-Liet, in Rheden, Gelderland. There they joined Robbie and Erick Kantemann, who were already hiding at the Bandels and were approximately the same age as the Ermann brothers. A short time afterwards, Guenther returned to the Zweers, but Paul remained with the Bandels until the end of the war. The Bandels ran a pub, which attracted a large clientele, especially in the evenings, so the boys had to keep quiet. No one except Johanna’s sisters, Petronella Peppelman* and Geertruida Zweers, knew that the Bandels were hiding Jewish children. Everyone knew each other in the village of Rheden, which made shopping for an illegally extended family risky. The Bandels tried to spread their shopping over various places at varying distances from their home in order not to arouse any suspicion. Johanna and Martinus Bandel were taking a serious risk by hiding Jewish children since soldiers of the German Wehrmacht frequented their pub. However, they felt that it was their human duty to save the boys from the certain death that would face them if they were caught. On January 29, 1974, Yad Vashem recognized Martinus Hendrikus Bandel and his wife, Johanna Bandel-Liet, as Righteous Among the Nations.