Vaart van der Dirk & Neeltje (Raadt de)

Vaart van der, Dirk Hendricus & Neeltje (de Raadt) Dirk and Neeltje van der Vaart were members of an evangelical community where Jews were respected as God’s Chosen People. The group, known as the Assembly of Believers, met at the home of Leendert de Graaf. Leendert was married to a Jewish woman, Rebecca van Gelder, who had subsequently converted. The extended family, comprising brothers and sisters and most of the in-laws helped to hide at least 17 Jews. Some stayed for a couple of nights or weeks and some remained a few years, but even those who had to leave were found another refuge, usually within the extended family. Raymond Kaempfer, who was born in 1940, hid with Dirk and Neeltje (Neels) van der Vaart in Wilnis, Utrecht, whom he looked upon as parents, from 1943 until the end of the war. Raymond’s mother, Eva Suzanne, was hidden with the family of the wife of Dirk’s half-brother, Wouter van Wijngaarden*. Sitta Stern (later Elkus), known as “Zwarte Jo,” helped in the household until neighbors threatened to betray her. Eva Tikotin and her two daughters also stayed with the van der Vaarts for some months until they were moved to a new hiding place in Loosdrecht with Dirk’s stepbrother Anton. On July 5, 1983, Yad Vashem recognized Dirk Hendricus van der Vaart and his wife, Neeltje van der Vaart-de Raadt, as Righteous Among the Nations.