Pelser Hendrik

Pelser, Hendrik E. When medical student and student assistant Hendrik (Henk) Pelser refused to sign a declaration of Aryan descent at the University of Amsterdam, he was summarily suspended. When in November 1940 all Jewish civil servants and Jewish professors from Dutch universities were dismissed, Henk was one of the organizers of the student protest in Amsterdam against these measures. In January 1941, Henk became involved in an underground group that was responsible for the publication and distribution of the illegal newspaper Het Parool. When the deportation of Dutch Jews began in the summer of 1942, Henk began organizing hiding places for his friends. He also provided false identity papers and, started opening escape routes to neutral Switzerland through Belgium and France. By arranging a network of people along the route, Henk helped some 60 Jews escape to Switzerland. He accompanied the fugitives himself to Belgium and sometimes even as far as the Swiss border. In October 1942, Henk entered Switzerland but was arrested and handed over to the French authorities. They placed him in an internment camp. He later managed to escape from the camp and returned to Holland. In January 1943, he again managed to reach Switzerland, where he delivered intelligence information to the Dutch envoy in Bern. Henk was arrested on April 3, 1943, shortly after returning to Amsterdam. He spent time in various prisons before being sent to the prisoner of war camp at Muhlberg in Germany, where he was incarcerated with Dutch officers. He remained in this camp for 11 months, until the liberation on April 23, 1945. After the liberation, Henk provided medical care to Dutch Jewish survivors from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp who were now staying in Troebitz. Hearing that his fiancée, Sara Oudkerk, was among the group of survivors brought to Troebitz, he immediately went to see her. The couple was married in August 1945. On November 13, 1995, Yad Vashem recognized Dr. HendrikE. Pelser as Righteous Among the Nations.