Diest van Willem & Anna (Meijer)

Diest van, Willem Jan Gerrit Hendrik & Anna Clasina (Meijer) Willem van Diest was a member of an underground organization called “Oranje Vrijbuiters,” which was betrayed in the war. Willem was the only survivor of the group and, with the assistance of his live-in housekeeper, Suzanna van Wezel, he pursued his Resistance efforts by hiding 17 people in his home in the city of Utrecht. In doing so, Willem endangered the life of his family, which included four children aged between seven and 17. When Marianne Slager was forced to leave her hiding place, the van Diests took her into their home on very short notice and for no payment. Less than two months later, in June 1943, the Gestapo began to search for Willem and the van Diests had to flee. Marianne and her mother, Rosalie, were taken to the van de Bor* family, where her father, David, later joined them. Then, when the Germans arrived at the van Diests front door, only an hour after the fugitives had been removed from the premises, Willem and Suzanna jumped over the garden fence and ran. Willem found shelter on a farm in De Bilt, Utrecht. When the danger subsided, he returned home and increased his efforts to save Jews. Among those whom Willem and his wife, Anna, hid in their home were the Leefsmas and their daughter Mary, Frans Schlesinger, Bartje (a student with dyed-blond hair), and Max and Cientje Vorst, who remained with the van Diests until the liberation. After the war David Slager was sent to Indonesia and contact with the van Diests ceased. Only in 1995 did Marianne write to the first name listed under van Diest in the Utrecht telephone directory and miraculously reach the niece of one of the three van Diest daughters whom she had loved so much. On June 21, 1998, Yad Vashem recognized Willem Jan Gerrit Hendrik van Diest and his wife, Anna Clasina van Diest-Meijer, as Righteous Among the Nations.