Hageman Jan & Albertina (Brinkman)

Hageman, Jan Willem Hageman-Brinkman, Albertina Wilhelmina Jan Willem and Albertina Wilhelmina (Bertha) Hageman-Brinkman, both in their forties, lived in Eibergen (prov. Gelderland) with their two children. Jan Willem was a clerk at the local municipality. The Hagemans resisted the German occupation from the beginning, and, with time, Jan Willem acted by using his official position. As he had access to municipal registrations, food stamps and other documents, he became a central person in issuing false documents to those in need: Jews, downed Allied pilots and members of resistance groups. Beyond these activities, both Jan Willem and Bertha opened their home in late 1942 for one-year-old Betty Rosenbaum (later, Kazin). After her father had been arrested in Amsterdam and deported, her mother Johanna (née Zion), managed to return to her native Eibergen, with Betty and her baby boy. Betty was taken to the Hageman family, whereas her mother found a hiding address elsewhere in the area, where she later was betrayed. Betty was introduced as the child of a distant relative whose father had been sent to work in Germany and whose mother could not care of her. Hageman arranged forged papers, with which Betty could be allowed outside. She soon felt very much at home with the Hagemans who cared for her as their own child. On April 20, 1944, Jan Willem, who had participated in a number of raids on other distribution offices in order to steal food stamps, was betrayed and arrested. After a cruel investigation, he was sentenced to death and shot on June 6, 1944 in the dunes near Overveen (prov. North-Holland). Although alone, Bertha continued to care for Betty, who stayed until the liberation of the area in April 1945. When it became clear that neither of Betty’s parents had survived, Betty went to live with relatives also in Eibergen. She kept in close touch with Bertha Hageman until Bertha’s death. On March 18, 2001, Yad Vashem recognized Jan Willem and Albertina Wilhelmina Hageman-Brinkman, as Righteous Among the Nations.