Deenik Anthonie & Maria (Cirkel); Son: Bill

Deenik, Anthonie Cornelis & Maria Allegonda (Cirkel) & Bill (Wim) The Deenik family saved the life of a young musician, Eric Oppenheimer, whom they sheltered for two years and eight months. Anthonie Deenik, owner of a bakery, lived with his wife, Maria, and their five children in a house attached to their store in Hilversum, North Holland. Before the outbreak of the war, the Deeniks had rented out rooms to Jewish refugees, including the Oppenheimer family, who had arrived from Germany in 1937. In 1941, the Oppenheimers, including 16-year-old Eric Oppenheimer, were forced to move to Amsterdam, where they were ordered to report to the German authorities in September 1942. Eric used his girlfriend’s Resistance contacts to return to the Deenik family, who considered it their duty to save “a child of the Israelites,” whatever the risks involved. Anthonie and Maria treated Eric like their youngest child and he became firm friends with their son Wim (later Bill), who was a 25-year-old theology student. Eric was given a room in the attic where he had to stay all day, including the evenings if there were guests in the house. Since he had no false papers, the presence of this fugitive had to be kept a complete secret. A special hideout under the stairs allowed Eric to disappear on the days when the maid came to the house. In the winter of 1944, the house was searched for warm clothing and blankets but again the Germans left empty-handed. Eric was a violinist, composer, and pianist and gave piano lessons to the Deenik daughters. Anthonie managed to track down the former first violinist of the Berlin Philharmonic, a Mr. Berg, who agreed to give Eric lessons, although he was also in hiding. His parents were rounded up and sent to Westerbork and from there to Bergen-Belsen. They later managed to reach Palestine where their elder son was already living. Eric joined them one year after the end of the war. On January 7, 1998, Yad Vashem recognized Anthonie Cornelis Deenik, hiswife, Maria Allegonda Deenik-Cirkel, and their son, Bill Deenik, as Righteous Among the Nations. Musly-Sikkel, Adriana Wilhelmina Jehuda Oppenheimer, born in 1925, fled Germany to the Netherlands with his parents, brother and sister, in 1937. The family settled in The Hague, until they were evicted by the Germans in 1941 along with all foreign nationals. They moved land inwards to the town of Hilversum, where they rented with the Deenik* family. However, in the beginning of 1942, they again were ordered to move, this time to one of the Jewish areas in Amsterdam. In the summer of 1942 they received summons to report for “work in the East”. It was then that a good friend of Jehuda from Hilversum, Elisabet (Bep) Musly (later, de la Rie), then seventeen, successfully convinced him to go into hiding instead. She asked her mother Adriana whether she would be willing to take him into their home, which she did. So in September that year, Jehuda pulled off the star from his coat and took the train to Hilversum. When the next day Elisabet travelled to Amsterdam to inform his parents that he had safely arrived, she was horrified to see that they had been arrested the night before and taken to the Westerbork transit camp. She managed to recover Jehuda’s violin and accordion, which she took back home with her. Jehuda stayed in hiding with Adriana Musly and her daughter for some months only, as their home was not a very safe place. Adriana rented out rooms in her large home, and there was no way to know whom to trust. Jehuda next stayed at more temporary hiding addresses until he was taken in by the Deenik* family, where he stayed until the liberation of the town in May 1945. Jehuda’s parents and brother survived Bergen Belsen. His sister perished in Theresienstadt. Jehuda stayed in touch with Elisabet Musly thereafter. On August 20, 2008, Yad Vashem recognized Adriana Wilhelmina Musly-Sikkel as a Righteous Among the Nations.