Beek van Marinus & Everdina (Lagemaat van de)

Beek van, Marinus Johannes & Everdina (van de Lagemaat) Marinus van Beek was a farmer in Bennekom, Gelderland. He and his family were strict Calvinists and felt it their duty to help the Jews during this difficult time. The van Beek family knew they were taking enormous personal risks, but their faith and human compassion drove them to contact underground groups and offer to hide Jews on their isolated farm. In 1942 they took in two-year-old Uriel Cohn, whom they renamed Jan, and in early 1943 Uriel’s parents, Adolph and Elfriede, also moved in with them. The Cohn family, originally from Germany, had been hiding with the van der Putt* family but it was no longer safe there. The van Beeks provided the Cohn family with two small rooms and they prepared a hiding place in the basement to be used in case of danger. Each time unannounced visitors came to the farm, Adolph Cohn, who had a dark, Jewish complexion, would hide there. The van Beeks would pretend that Elfriede and Uriel were distant relatives, whose house had been destroyed in the war. In order to give credence to this story, Elfriede would regularly accompany Everdina (Evertje) van Beek on shopping trips and go with the family to church on Sundays. Adolph, however, never left the farm. In late September 1944, when it became clear that Operation Market Garden had failed to liberate Arnhem, and the van Beeks were ordered to evacuate the area, they made sure that the Cohn family had an alternative hiding place, referring them to local representatives of the Red Cross. The Cohns survived the war and later moved to Israel. The two families have always stayed in touch. On July 13, 1972, Yad Vashem recognized Marinus Johannes van Beek and his wife, Everdina van Beek van de Lagemaat, as Righteous Among the Nations.