Sprengers Petrus & Hermiena (Tellingen van)

Sprengers, Petrus Sprengers-van Tellingen, Hermiena Petrus and Hermiena Sprengers, both in their thirties, lived in Eindhoven (North-Brabant) with their two sons, in their early teens. Petrus was a clerk with the Philips Company, while Hermiena was at home with the children. In the course of 1943, relatives of Hermiena asked the Sprengers to take the Jewish Mina van der Heim into their home. Mina, over 60 years old and never married, had to leave an earlier hiding address. No one was to know of her presence with the Sprengers and the children received strict orders never to mention “Aunt Mientje”. Close-by lived collaborators, whose son had volunteered for the SS. Mina received her own room on the second floor of the house. Petrus and Hermiena took care of all her needs. Mina stayed until the liberation of Eindhoven in September 1944. For some time, the Sprengers also had a man in hiding who had refused to report for forced labor in Germany. After the war, Mina moved to Amsterdam, but contact between her and the Sprengers stayed frequent. It was Mina’s wish to be buried close to where her rescuers lived in Eindhoven. On October 27, 2002, Yad Vashem recognized Petrus Sprengers and Hermiena Sprengers-van Tellingen, as Righteous Among the Nations.