Bos Joost & Goverdiena (Schermers)

Bos, Joost Pieter & Goverdiena (Schermers) Joost Bos, originally from Zwijndrecht, South Holland, worked as a schoolteacher in Nieuwlande, Drenthe. Together with his wife, Goverdiena, born in Veen, he hid three Jews---Ellie Kapper, Dolf Kool, and Henk Bonenwit. In the last few months of the war, when the population of Limburg, in particular women and children, were evacuated to other parts of Holland, the Boses also welcomed a mother and her three children into the safety of their home. On the evening of October 16, 1944, the Dutch Nazi-affiliated armed guards broke into the Boses’ house in an attempt to root out hidden fugitives. The intruders found Ellie in bed, but were told that she was a cousin from the west of Holland, and believed the story. They then fired shots into the ceiling, but fortunately they missed the two Jewish boys and a third fugitive who were hidden in the loft. The guards also failed to detect the other hidden boys when they continued searching the house for “illegal” materials. Nevertheless, Joost was arrested for harboring fugitives. He was taken to Assen and transferred to the SD there. On June 9, 1983, Yad Vashem recognized Joost Pieter Bos and his wife, Goverdiena Bos-Schermers, as Righteous Among the Nations.