Laan van der Matheus & Jantje (Vries de)

Laan van der, Matheus & Jantje (de Vries) When her family decided that they should go into hiding in 1942, eight-year-old Ruth Jurgrau (later Lavie) and her mother, Lea, hid with some friends of theirs. Her father, Dov-Berl, went underground in Groningen, where he joined the Resistance. Ruth and her mother were betrayed not long afterwards and Ruth was rushed to Groningen by the underground. Ruth’s mother was deported to Sobibor and Ruth never saw her again. She saw her father once, in Groningen, but he too was apprehended and perished in Auschwitz. For 18 months, Ruth lived with Matheus and Jantje van der Laan, who had no children of their own. Matheus, a bank clerk, and Jantje, an arts and crafts teacher, looked after Ruth as if she were their own child. They pretended she was a refugee from Rotterdam and she was known as Liesje. Since she was dark and looked Jewish, it was thought wiser for Ruth-Liesje to stay indoors and not go to school, so Matheus and Jantje taught her at home. This comfortable life was suddenly disrupted when Matheus and Jantje were betrayed. The underground quickly managed to move Ruth to another family and she lost touch with Matheus and Jantje. After the war Ruth immigrated to Israel at the age of 14. Only after their reunion did Ruth learn that Matheus and Jantje had also been pursued by the Germans and had been forced to flee their home, which was subsequently plundered. They remained hidden for the rest of the war, but carried on with their underground activities. On May 2, 1985, Yad Vashem recognized Matheus van der Laan and his wife, Jantje van der Laan-de Vries, as Righteous Among the Nations.