Jappe Albert & Jacomijntje (Koek)

Jappe Alberts, Albert Jappe Alberts-Koek, Jacomijntje Albert Jappe Alberts was a dentist in Rotterdam, where he lived with his wife Jacomijntje, a housewife, and Ans, his teenage daughter, from his Jewish first wife who was Jewish and had passed away in 1937. Among Alberts’ acquaintances was Dr. Mozes Elzas, director of the Jewish hospital in the city. In annex to it were an orphanage and an old age home. The Elzas couple had seven children. In the summer of 1942, with the beginning of the deportations of the Jews to “work in the East”, Jappe Alberts suggested that Dr. Elzas hide with him. However, Elzas said that he did not want to abandon the people under his care. When, on February 26, 1943, the German Police assisted by the Dutch pro-Nazi auxiliary police force (Landwacht) rounded up all the two hundred patients, including elderly and orphans, for deportation, Dr. Elzas went along with them. However, he was not deported together with them to Auschwitz. Instead, he was taken to the Barneveld detention center for “privileged Jews”. In September 1943, these Jews were taken to the Westerbork transit camp, and one year later to Theresienstadt where Dr. Elzas luckily survived. In mid-1943, Jappe Alberts turned to Geertruida Elzas (née Edersheim), begging her to let him and his wife Jacomijntje hide two of their daughters. Erna (later, Feist), sixteen years old, and Helena (later, de Haas), nineteen years old, were thus taken into the Jappe Alberts home. Shortly afterwards, Mrs. Elzas was arrested with the other children who were still at home. At about the same time, Jappe Alberts was approached by Liesbeth Cohen-Franken, a cousin of his first wife, desperately looking for a place to hide for herself, her husband, Ernst, and their five-year-old daughter Heleen (later, Berman). They too were accepted into the Jappe Alberts home. The Elzas sisters and the Cohen family had to stay indoors at all times. Jappe Alberts knew of a number of collaborators in theneighborhood, and the Elzas girls were known in the area. During the day, they all stayed out of public view, in the rooms they had been given in the attic, and only at night could they join the Jappe Alberts family in the living area of their home. Despite the difficult circumstances and constant fear of betrayal, there was a pleasant atmosphere in the home. The family received extra food stamps through a local resistance cell. In March 1944, Jappe Alberts and his wife also agreed to hide an American pilot, whose plane had been downed over Rotterdam. Towards the end of 1944, he left, trying to reach England via Spain, but was arrested in Belgium. Soon afterwards, on December 5, 1944, Germans came to the Jappe Alberts house, immediately going for the attic to search for the hidden Jews. All were arrested, including Albert, Jacomijntje and Ans, by then 17-year-old. Albert was executed in Heynenoord on February 18, 1945, in a reprisal action, Jacomijntje was sent to the infamous prison in Scheveningen, otherwise known as the Oranje Hotel, and Ans was incarcerated in a local prison until freed with the liberation in May 1945. The Elzas sisters and the Cohen parents were deported to Theresienstadt, whereas Heleen Cohen remained in the Westerbork transit camp in the northeast of the Netherlands. They all survived. Jacomijntje moved to England after the war with Ans, where she lived until passing away in 1989. Ernst Cohen immigrated to Israel with Heleen, after his divorce from Liesbeth. The Elzas family also moved to Israel. They stayed in touch with the Jappe Alberts family thereafter. On March 27, 2005, Yad Vashem recognized Albert Jappe Alberts and Jacomijntje Jappe Alberts-Koek, as Righteous Among the Nations.