Kroeze Hendrik & Jacoba (Arkema); Son: Piet

Kroeze, Hendrik & Jacoba (Arkema) & Piet When Comprecht and Rosetta Eckstein of Muntendam, Groningen, felt compelled to go into hiding, Hendrik Kroeze and his wife, Jacoba, who lived 200 yards down the road from them, offered them the basement of their house, where they had an office and storage space for building materials. The Ecksteins accepted the offer and lived there from October 4, 1942, until the liberation of Muntendam on April 14, 1945. Hendrik Kroeze was a Resistance worker. His wife was ill and she spent much of the time during the war in the hospital. Their son, Piet, then in his early twenties, was one of 18 members of a Resistance group, of whom 16 were killed during the war. Over and above his work for the Resistance, Piet visited the Ecksteins every evening after work and brought them food supplies for the following day. Piet always emptied their lavatory bucket and made sure that they had three fresh pails of water every day. In the basement, there was a stove on which Rosetta Eckstein cooked for herself and her husband. During their time in hiding, the Kroezes made no financial arrangements with the Ecksteins and the fugitive couple paid normal prices for food. If there were no vegetables on the market, Piet gave them some from his own garden. If there was only pork, Piet brought them a chicken from his own coop. The Kroezes helped their friends because of their love of mankind and out of religious conviction. Throughout the entire period, when local people asked the Kroezes what had happened to the Ecksteins, they answered that their friends had tried to escape to Switzerland but had been arrested by the Germans. After the war, the two families remained very good friends. On November 13, 1995, Yad Vashem recognized Hendrik Kroeze, his wife, Jacoba Kroeze-Arkema, and their son, Piet Kroeze, as Righteous Among the Nations.