Hoekstra Johannes & Corrie (Vos)

Hoekstra, Johannes & Corrie (Vos) On October 3, 1942, Mr. Kramer, a neighbor of the Kats family in Eindhoven, took one-year-old Sonja Kahn and her teddy bear on the back of his bicycle to the home of Johannes and Corrie Hoekstra. They were already hiding Esther Wertheim-Rosenfeld. Johannes worked as a chemist at Philips and Corrie was not working at the time, although she was a professional gold-and silvermith. The couple had five children and since Sonja was only permitted to play indoors or in the small back garden the Hoekstras’ two youngest children, both girls, took turns playing with her. Sonja sometimes had to hide in the cellar and on several occasions she was sent temporarily to other addresses, once because Johannes was arrested and another time because Germans had visited their home and Johannes feared betrayal. Johannes and Corrie were motivated by a pure love of mankind and their unwillingness to accept cruel and unjust actions. When Holland was liberated, Sonja stayed on with her foster family. In 1959, they adopted her officially because she chose to remain with them rather than move in with relatives who had survived the war. The government of the Netherlands posthumously awarded Johannes Hoekstra with the Decoration for Resistance Work. On March 27, 1997, Yad Vashem recognized Johannes Hoekstra and his wife, Corrie Hoekstra-Vos, as Righteous Among the Nations.