Kooistra Sipke & Gerritje (Rijn van)

Kooistra, Sipke &Gerritje (van Rijn) Sipke Kooistra was an active member of the underground in the city of Utrecht, helping dozens of Jews find shelter and providing them with food ration cards. His brother, Wopke Kooistra*, a Resistance leader, was honored by having a street in Israel named after him. Benjamin and Eva Creveld met Sipke Kooistra when he rented rooms in their home in Utrecht from 1936 to 1938. When Sip and his wife, Gerritje---both teachers in their thirties and the parents of two young children---understood the fate that awaited the Jews of Holland, they invited the Creveld family to hide in their home. On September 2, 1942, Benjamin, Eva, and their ten-year-old son Izaak moved in. Soon after the fugitives arrived in the Kooistras’ home, they were betrayed and forced to move. Sipke kept in contact with them at their new location, bringing them money and food cards. When the danger subsided, Izaak returned to the Kooistras, where he stayed until the end of the war despite the danger involved. During the war, Sipke and Gerritje also took in another member of the Creveld family, six-year-old Tirtza, who had light skin and blonde hair and looked like one of the family so that she was represented to the Germans as being their own child. In addition, when Sipke and Gerritje heard that Reina Creveld-West was being forced to leave her hiding place, they offered her shelter as well. Reina had recently married Benjamin’s brother, Max Creveld, in August 1942, in order to be able to go into hiding together with him. Gerritje was extremely supportive when Riena became pregnant and helped the young mother raise her baby until the end of the war. On October 22, 1980, Yad Vashem recognized Sipke Kooistra and his wife, Gerritje Kooistra-van Rijn, as Righteous Among the Nations.