Laan van der Hendrik & Antje (Koster)

Laan van der, Hendrik & Antje (Koster) When the deportations of Jews in Amsterdam began, the parents of ten-year-old Rachel Hart (later Wetters) realized that they would have to find a safe shelter. A nurse at the hospital and a member of the Resistance found a temporary hiding place for Rachel with a family in Amsterdam. When it became too dangerous she found her another family to hide with, and in August 1943 Rachel moved to Hendrik and Antje van der Laan’s home in Baflo, Groningen. Rachel, who was 11, was given the name Ellie van Leeuwen and pretended to be a refugee from the bombing of Rotterdam. Antje and Hendrik, whom she called “aunt” and “uncle,” and their two children warmly welcomed her into their home. They tried to make her life as normal as possible, allowing her to go to school and play in the street. When Antje and Hendrik asked the school principal if Ellie could attend, he asked if she was one of “those” children. When they said yes, he immediately agreed to take her. In the village, only he and the family doctor knew Rachel was Jewish. When German soldiers turned up at the house searching for one of the neighbors, Stavenga, who was active in the Resistance, Antje pretended she did not understand what they wanted. The soldiers left convinced that Hendrik was not the man they were looking for. They found Stavenga ten minutes later and arrested him. A short while after the liberation, Rachel’s father came to get her. Her mother had not survived the war. He stayed with Hendrik and Antje for a few weeks before taking Rachel with him. Rachel lost touch for over 30 years with the family who had saved her. On June 6, 1993, Yad Vashem recognized Hendrik van der Laan and his wife, Aantje van der Laan-Koster, as Righteous Among the Nations.