Gerwen van Frans & Maria (Huyck); Daughter: Amelie ; Daughter: Maria

Van Gerwen, Frans Van Gerwen-Huyck, Maria J. Van Gerwen, Amélie Van Gerwen, Maria Desirée In the course of 1943, the parents of five-year-old Jacqui Borzikowski (later Jacky Barkan), from Brussels, were deported to Auschwitz, where they perished. Earlier, Jacqui had been placed by his parents in a home, from where he was taken to the Van Gerwen family, in Buggenhout, in the province of East Flanders. Frans and Maria Van Gerwen lived on a farm with their two daughters Amélie and Maria, both in their late teens. Jacqui was welcomed as one of the family and was treated very well by both parents and daughters. There was no need to elaborate on his presence in the village as, luckily for Jacqui, not too many questions were asked by the inhabitants. Jacqui was able to go to school and he helped out on the farm. He joined the family in weekly church services, but was not baptized. Jacqui stayed with the family until the liberation and beyond, when he was located by an uncle in 1945. Separation was difficult for the boy, but he stayed in close touch with the family in the years thereafter. On December 4, 1983, Yad Vashem recognized Frans Van Gerwen and Maria Van Gerwen-Huyck and their daughters Amélie and Sister Marie Desirée (who has since elected to become a nun) as Righteous Among the Nations.