Goedhart Daniel & Wilhelmina (Westendorff); Daughter: Kisjes Hannah (Goedhart)

Goedhart, Daniel Christiaan & Wilhelmina Maria Anna (Westendorff) & Hanna In May 1942, when 11-year-old Bertie Lichtenstern and her mother were betrayed and had to leave their hiding place, someone passed them the address of a nurse who lived nearby. The nurse allowed Bertie’s mother to stay, but she said that Bertie looked too Jewish and would have to hide elsewhere. The mother contacted an underground worker, who took Bertie to Daniel and Wilhelmina Goedhart in Hummelo, Gelderland, where a Jewish doctor and his wife, Flip and Fan Itallie, were already hiding. The Itallies remained with the Goedharts for three years. According to their forged papers, he was a patient named Ebbers and she was his nurse. Daniel Goedhart was the vicar of Hummelo. He introduced Bertie to people as his niece from Amsterdam, but the members of his congregation knew that she was a Jewish girl. Consequently, Daniel and Wilhelmina told Bertie that they would have to find a new hideout for her. After consulting with their children, who were in their late teens and early twenties, Daniel and Wilhelmina decided that Bertie could stay. To make her look less suspicious, Fan bleached the child’s hair and eyebrows. While in hiding with the Goedharts, Bertie was treated like a member of the family. She looked after the chickens and rabbits and helped with the household chores. She also had time to play the piano and read. After Bertie had been with the Goedharts for a year, Hanna (Han) Goedhart (later Kisjes), the couple’s eldest daughter, who was a teacher in Utrecht, came home with tuberculosis. After recovering, Daniel told her to remain at home and lie on the reclining chair in the garden pretending that she was an infectious tuberculosis patient. The ruse stopped the Germans from requisitioning the vicarage. Han then obtained schoolbooks for Bertie and taught her some elementary subjects. In the evenings, Daniel read from the Bible by candlelight. In 1943, the Goedharts sheltered threerelatives who had been bombed out of their homes. In 1944, two young men who had been drafted to dig ditches for the Germans went into hiding in the Goedharts’ home. When the orphanage was bombed and the occupants were divided among the villagers, Daniel and Wilhelmina took in three more people, including a three-year-old Jewish girl named Rita. By this time, Wilhelmina was cooking for 17 people. Later in 1944, German soldiers seized part of the vicarage and also occupied the barn to use as an ammunition store. A German soldier walked around the property every five minutes to guard the ammunition. Consequently, Bertie was no longer permitted to leave her little room in the attic. The situation became very precarious but the Goedhart family believed that God was looking after them and never considered sending the hidden Jews elsewhere. After the war, Bertie went to live with her grandfather’s brother’s family in South Africa. She remained in touch with the Goedharts, especially with her close friend and teacher Han. On January 30, 1997, Yad Vashem recognized Daniel Christiaan Goedhart, his wife, Wilhelmina Maria Anna Goedhart-Westendorff, and their daughter, Hanna Goedhart, as Righteous Among the Nations.