Ridder de Dirk

Ridder de, Dirk Cornelis & Bor van de, Teunis & Leentje Geertruida (Eimers) In May 1940, during the German invasion of the Netherlands, Dirk (Dick) de Ridder and David Slager served together in the Dutch army on the Grebbeberg line, where heavy fighting took place. After the capitulation of the Netherlands, Dirk became an active member of the underground. Slager trusted Dirk enough to leave him large amounts of money to look after. In August 1942, the three Slager children, who lived with their parents in Bilthoven, Utrecht, were sent to their grandparents. In October, when the Germans apprehended the grandparents, Dirk took the Slager boys first to his own home and then to separate hiding places in nearby Bunnik. Their seven-year-old sister, Marianne, stayed with the grandparents’ household help for a few weeks. When Dirk found Marianne, he took her to her parents, who were being sheltered in a hiding place with the van de Bor family that Dirk had arranged for them. Teunis van de Bor had an unsteady job as a laborer in an abattoir and since he was often out of work he had difficulty providing for his family. He lived with his wife, Leentje (Lena), and their young daughter (born 1941) in a small, groundfloor apartment in a working class area of the city of Utrecht. They had a spare room in the attic and this became the living quarters of the Slager family until the liberation two years later, in May 1945. During the hunger winter of 1944--1945, Lena frequently went on food-foraging expeditions to nearby farms. On the rare occasions that Teunis managed to get some milk, Marianne was always given some. Throughout their time in hiding, Dirk kept in touch with all the members of the Slager family and used the money he was safeguarding to pay for the upkeep of the family members. The Slagers survived the war and stayed in touch with their wartime hosts even after they immigrated to Israel. On December 25, 1984, Yad Vashem recognized Dirk Cornelis de Ridder,and Teunis van de Bor and his wife, Leentje Geertruida van de Bor-Eimers, as Righteous Among the Nations.