Verheij Bastiaan & Johanna (Rombach)

Verheij, Bastiaan Adrianus & Johanna Paulina (Rombach) Ineke Aronson (later Sarine Frankenhuis) of Amersfoort was 12 years old when she was prohibited from attending school. The school principal subsequently recommended that she take private lessons with Johanna Verheij-Rombach, herself the director of a Montessori high school. Johanna welcomed Ineke as a pupil and took no money from her. On August 16, 1942, Ineke’s parents were ordered to report for deportation and asked Johanna if she would hide their daughter. Johanna agreed, without taking any payment, and thus Ineke was hidden with Johanna and her husband, Bastiaan, a self-employed civil engineer. No other children were living with the Bastiaan and Johanna at the time, as their four sons were all adults and two of them were married (one of them was Dr. Joor Bastiaan Verheij* of Gevelduin-Capelle). However, there were other adults hidden there, all elderly people, among them Henri van Raalte, who became the president of the Amersfoort Jewish community after the war, and his wife. Ineke stayed with the Verheijs until the liberation and she emigrated to Israel in 1948. Bastiaan died a few years later and Ineke maintained regular contact with Johanna, who visited her three times in Israel. Ineke only asked that Yad Vashem recognize her wartime saviors after they had both died because, as a religious woman, Johanna did not believe in earthly awards. On May 7, 1987, Yad Vashem recognized Bastiaan Adrianus Verheij and his wife, Johanna Paulina Verheij-Rombach, as Righteous Among the Nations.