Verreith Pieter ; Sister: Barten Christina (Verreith)

Verreith, Pieter Jacob Barten, Christina Theodora Wilhelmina (Verreith) The Verreiths were an elderly couple who owned an inn in the center of Sevenum, Limburg. They had 13 children, two of whom in particular, Pieter (Piet) and Christina (Stiena; later Barten-Verreith), did much to help Piet Arts*, an underground worker who brought Jews to Sevenum and distributed them among the villagers. Stiena functioned as the contact person who visited the Jews and attended to all their personal needs. Lilly Kettner (later Lilly Ticho-Katner) stayed at the inn for several days. Piet Verreith then took her temporarily to his own home until she was placed with the van Enckevort* family, also in Sevenum. Sevenum was a village of about 300 families who, among them, hid about 300 Jews, pilots, and students. The Germans suspected this but never succeeded in finding anyone. Frustrated, they stood at the church entrance on Sunday morning, October 8, 1944, and rounded up 700 men from Sevenum and the neighboring villages for forced labor in Germany. On March 9, 1978, Yad Vashem recognized Piet Verreith and his sister, Christina Theodora Wilhelmina Barten-Verreith, as Righteous Among the Nations.