Essen van Hermanus & Elisabeth (Kuiper)

Essen van, Hermanus Marinus & Elisabeth Cornelia (Kuiper) Members of the Resistance brought two-year-old Bertha Bromet to Helmig Flier’s* home in Oldebroek, Gelderland. The Fliers had a child nine months younger than Bertha. During the course of the war, they also sheltered Bertha’s aunt, Blanche Vieyra-Nabarro, and her two-year-old daughter, Rachel. After a few weeks, Bertha was transferred to Hermanus and Cornelia van Essen, a young childless couple in nearby Elburg, Gelderland. The van Essens told their neighbors that the baby was the daughter of Hermanus’s sister, whose husband was a sailor and who was unable to reach his family in Apeldoorn because of the war. To make the adoption appear more official, Hermanus registered the child on his marriage license, but without filling in a birth date, which was unknown to him. Bertha remained with the van Essens until August or September 1945, when her mother, who survived Auschwitz, found her. There were no financial arrangements made with the van Essen family to compensate them for their extra expenses. On July 7, 1983, Yad Vashem recognized Hermanus Marinus van Essen and his wife, Elisabeth Cornelia van Essen-Kuiper, as Righteous Among the Nations.