Wikkerink Hendrik & Dela (Eppinger)

Wikkerink, Hendrik Jan & Dela Gesina (Epping) If he could save the life of only one Jew, he would be saved for all eternity---such was the belief of Hendrik Jan Wikkerink, a deeply religious member of the Dutch Calvinist Church. Also known as Ome (Uncle) Jan, Hendrik Jan managed to save the lives of some 70 Jews, as well as many non-Jews. In February 1944, a 23-year-old nurse, Hetty de Jong (later van Zuiden) was advised to seek shelter with Ome Jan and his wife, Dela Gesina, a couple in their late forties who had eight children between the ages of eight and 20. There were often refugees in the Wikkerink house. If the fugitives had traveled for a long time, the Wikkerinks would give up their own beds and sleep on the floor. Ome Jan and Dela Gesina also hid an infant whom they found on their doorstep. They cared for him for three years until the liberation, when a Jewish family from Aalten, the Jetwaps, came to collect the child. Ome Jan was involved in finding hiding places for Jews and supplying them with money and ration cards, which he or his eldest daughter would deliver every week. On one occasion, when a Jewish woman died in her hiding place, Ome Jan buried her in the middle of the night in a Jewish cemetery. Toward the end of 1944, the Germans caught up with Ome Jan and he was brought temporarily to the local police station. While the arresting officers were out looking for a vehicle to continue their journey, the local police faked a raid by breathing in chloroform so as to become unconscious while Ome Jan disappeared. The Germans retaliated by setting fire to the Wikkerink home, burning all their belongings. The Wikkerinks and their wards spent the last months of the war with relatives. After the war, the Wikkerinks, who had neither the means nor the materials to rebuild their home, lived for a long time in an emergency structure. Queen Wilhelmina, who visited the family in their temporary dwelling, honored Hendrik Jan Wikkerink with the Order ofOranje-Nassau. On January 1, 1978, Yad Vashem recognized Hendrik Jan Wikkerink and his wife, Dela Gesina Wikkerink-Epping, as Righteous Among the Nations.