Sixma Frederik & Maria (Cornet); Son: Frederik

Sixma, Frederik Sixma-Cornet, Maria Henrica Sixma, Frederik (Frits) The Jewish Sternheim family fled their native Germany soon after the Nazis’ rise to power in 1933. They settled in Amsterdam, where daughter Ruth (later, Brenner), born in 1924, went to school. Over time, she became friendly with Frits Sixma, a fellow high school student, in whom she confided that Jews were being forced out of school and public life altogether. Soon after the start of the deportations of the Jews from the Netherlands to the camps in the East, Ruth, by now nearly nineteen, decided to turn to her friend Frits and ask his help in finding a place to hide. Ruth’s father had already left for the United States before the outbreak of the war in search of a job, and Ruth’s mother Erna and younger sister Lore did not dare ask others to put themselves in danger for their family. They were eventually arrested with the major razzia in the city on June 20, 1943 and deported to Bergen Belsen. Both survived the camp. Frits presented Ruth’s predicament to his parents, Frederik Sixma, in his sixties, and Maria, in her fifties, who agreed to take the risk and have Ruth come hide in their home. As Frits had become active in an underground cell, he managed to forge an identity card for Ruth, in the name of Corry de Clercq. She then put on clothes of Frits’ sister, covered her head with a large shawl, put on sun glasses, and made her way to the Sixma home, where she stayed until the liberation of the city in May 1945. As The Sixma family lived in an apartment with a shared entrance with neighbors, Ruth was not be seen or heard at any time for the entire period. During the day, she stayed quiet and away from the windows. When ever necessary, she went into a hiding space behind one of the cabinets. Only during the evening hours could she join the Sixmas in their living room. The Sixmas further endangered themselves by taking in a Dutch man who had refused to report for forced labor in Germany(Arbeitseinsatz). During her stay with the Sixmas, Ruth and Frits grew closer, and in 1945, a few months after the liberation, they got engaged. The bond did not last and they separated about half a year later. In 1950, Ruth joined her parents in the United States, where she married. She kept in touch with her rescuers until her untimely death in 1964. On July 20, 2011, Yad Vashem recognized Frederik Sxima, Maria Henrica Sixma-Cornet and their son Frederik (Frits) Sixma as Righteous Among the Nations.