Pfann Abraham & Gerritje (Zwijnen)

Pfann, Abraham & Gerritje Wilhelmina (Zwijnen) Mietje and Benjamin Joosten and their six sons lived in Hoograven, Utrecht. Soon after the war broke out, Arend and Philip Joosten, both in their early twenties, became active in the underground. In 1942, when the family had to go into hiding, they took their youngest brother, Benno-Arend, to Cornelis and Trijntje Roelofs* in Apeldoorn, Gelderland, and they arranged for 11-year-old Rolf to escape from Holland. No decision had been made regarding hiding Mietje and Benjamin and their two other sons, Joost and Salko, when Abraham and Gerritje Pfann came to the Joostens on their own accord and offered them shelter. Thus, Benjamin, Mietje, Joost and Salko moved in with the Pfanns, whom they knew by sight before this but had never spoken to. When the fugitives arrived at the Pfann’s house, they discovered that several Jews were already living in the attic. Before long, the Joostens learned that their son Rolf had not actually left the country and had found refuge in a Jewish orphanage in Amsterdam, and they asked the Pfanns if they would be willing to take him in too. They agreed and Abraham immediately traveled to Amsterdam and brought Rolf home with him. Later that year, Philip was caught by the Germans and sent to his death in Auschwitz. The same fate befell his brother Arend in 1944. In 1943, Mr. Weinberg, one of the Jews hiding with the Pfanns, took a train and was arrested by the Germans. For safety’s sake, all the other Jews hiding with the Pfanns were relocated. Only a few days later, the house was searched. In March 1944, the Pfanns welcomed Mr. and Mrs. Hein-Jacobs and the Kan family into their home. They all remained there until September 18, 1944, the day of the railroad strike, when it became too dangerous to stay there because Abraham was a railroad worker. On September 18, 1980, Yad Vashem recognized Abraham Pfann and his wife, Gerritje Wilhelmina Pfann-Zwijnen, as Righteous Among the Nations.