Pouw Hendrik & Margarete (Neumann)

Pouw, Hendrik & Margarete Pauline Berta Elisabeth (Neumann) The Pouw family kept a well-known Dachshund dog kennel on their farm in Voorthuizen, Gelderland, and Margarete Pouw had published many articles about the genetics of dogs. Hendrik and Margarete Pouw also bred cows and chickens on the farm, which was called Enny’s Hoeve. The couple, who were both well educated, had six children aged between eight and 23. One of the Pouw daughters had attended high school with a Jewish girl, Margot Herz (later Schwarz-Herz), and had often invited her to the farm. In 1943, Margot’s parents and sister were deported to the camps and Margot asked the Pouws for help. Hendrik Pouw immediately drove to Amsterdam to get the girl and brought her to the farm, where a number of Jews were already in hiding. These included Isaac and Rosa Noach of Deventer, Mr. H.N.W. Hirshland of The Hague, an eight-year-old Swiss girl (later Mrs. A. Thonern), and six-year-old Bernard Aak. Other Jews stayed for various periods of time. Some of those in hiding with the Pouws paid for their upkeep while others were helped by the underground, which also supplied them with food coupons. Margot was treated like a daughter and never paid anything. She helped out in the household as much as she could. In October 1944, some underground activists were hidden among the haystacks on the farm. They used their new location as a base for Resistance operations and even took German hostages. The Germans later discovered the hideout, but a timely warning enabled everyone to escape, although one of the Pouw daughters decided to remain behind with the animals. On October 17, 1944, the Germans arrested the girl, removed the animals, and set fire to the farm. The girl was released a month later. The Pouw family stayed in hiding until the end of the war and Margot Herz and the two Jewish children found a hiding place in the next village. On March 22, 1977, Yad Vashem recognized Hendrik Pouw and his wife, Margarete PaulineBerta Elisabeth Pouw-Neumann, as Righteous Among the Nations.