Paulusma Paulus & Helene (Caumanns)

Paulusma, Paulus & Helene (Caumanns) “We played with fire and lived on a volcano,” recalled Paul Paulusma of his wartime Resistance activities. His father, Paulus, was born in Friesland and moved to Germany as a young man to work as a farmhand, where he met his future wife ,whom he married in 1911. The couple, who raised seven children, moved to Holland toward the end of World War I and settled in Blerick, Limburg, in 1939. The Paulusmas’ offspring had all left home when Paulus began his illegal activities, assisted by son, Paul, who worked as a courier. They were involved in hiding young Jewish children through the local Dutch Reformed church. Students who were active in the Resistance brought the refugees to the area from Amsterdam. Among them was Pietje (Max), dark, black-eyed, and posing as the son of a sickly aunt from northern Holland. Pietje was the son of Salomon Horwitz, who was working at the Joodsche Invalide. One night, the Germans rounded up the family and took them to the train station for deportation to Westerbork. Pietje and other children were taken to the Hollandsche Schouwburg, where they were hidden under the stage and then taken by train to Limburg. Pietje (now Meir) was accepted as a member of the Paulusma family and treated with great affection. When Blerick was evacuated at the end of 1944, he moved with his foster family to Sevenum, 20 kilometers away. After the war, the Le-Ezrat Ha-Yeled group took Pietje to Apeldoorn, Gelderland, from where he left for Palestine in 1947. He lost touch with his rescuers until 1996, when he contacted an Israeli social worker living in Holland with a request to trace his foster family. On October 18, 1998, Yad Vashem recognized Paulus Paulusma and his wife, Helene Paulusma-Caumanns, as Righteous Among the Nations.