Kagenaar Jacoba

Kagenaar, Jacoba C. Jacoba (Coba) Kagenaar was an old friend of Herman van Buren’s from the days when they were both members of the worker’s youth movement in Holland, where she had been his leader. She was a bookkeeper by profession, working for a shipping company. Jacoba was a very modest woman who did not reveal much about her activities. She lived with her parents in a small apartment in Amsterdam and she hid Sara van Buren, Herman’s wife, there until she found her a new place to hide. Although the couple had forged identity papers from the underground, there was always the risk that the forgery would be spotted. Coba also found a hiding place for a Jewish girl whose parents tried to commit suicide in their despair. Coba took care of getting food cards for those in hiding, distributed underground pamphlets, and morally and spiritually supported families in hiding, keeping up contact between family members hidden in different places or arrested and being held apart. For example, she kept in touch with Herman van Buren while he was hiding, sometimes together with his wife and sometimes separately, and kept up the connection between him and his sister, who was being held at the Vught camp. Coba’s motives were purely humanitarian--she wanted to help those who were being persecuted. On December 28, 1988, Yad Vashem recognized Jacoba C. Kagenaar as Righteous Among the Nations.