Meijerink Hendrik & Aaltje (Boese); Daughter: Truus

Meijerink, Hendrik Johan Willem Adriaan Meijerink-Boese, Aaltje Johanna Meijerink, Truus One day in the fall of 1942, Truus Meijerink , 23 years old, was called to the home of her fiancée because they ‘had to show her something’. The ‘something’ turned out to be a three-year-old Jewish boy, who went by the name of Simi, sitting on a bed in one of the backrooms of the Sleddering home. The child urgently needed a hiding address – would she know anyone? The Amsterdam student resistance group* had taken him to the eastern part of the country, where he was put with the Sleddering family in Arnhem for just some few days until a safer place could be located. The Sledderings had a store with many people walking in and out, and were unable to keep him. Little Simi turned out to be Simcha Löbel (later, Leibel), born in 1939 in Amsterdam. His father, Izrael Chaim Löbel, born 1912, had been arrested on the street at the end of the summer of 1942, when the deportations of the Jews to the camps in the East were in full force. The father was subsequently deported to Auschwitz, where he perished on January 31, 1944. Simi’s mother Leah (née Beder), then decided to try and find a hiding place for her little son. She found a place for the boy; however, soon afterwards he was betrayed and taken to the Crêche in Amsterdam, the holding area for apprehended children. Towards the end of 1942, he was spirited away and taken to Arnhem. When confronted with this situation, Truus Meijerink asked her parents if they would be willing to take the risk and hide the boy in their home. Her father, Hendrik Meijerink had been the director of a teachers’ seminary in the East Indies, and upon his return was elected to the House of Representatives in the Netherlands Hendrik was also active in the local resistance ever since the start of the occupation. He, nonetheless, initially hesitated since many frequented their home, including people he did not know. In addition, one of theMeijerink sons was in hiding after not reporting for forced labor (Arbeitseinsatz) and another son was imprisoned by the Japanese in the Far East. Yet, that evening after reading the Bible as was done on a daily basis in their home, the Meijerinks realized it was their religious duty to come forward and take in the boy, in spite of the personal risk involved. Truus set out to her future in-laws and picked up Simi, who from then on became ‘the little prince’ in the Meijerink household. He was surrounded with love from all the Meijerink family members, and was never left out of sight by the Meijerink daughters, Truus and her younger, then 17-year-old sister, Annie. The story was created that Simi had come to the family, since his parents, whom the Meijerinks had known in the East Indies, had perished in the bombing of Rotterdam at the beginning of the war. Family and friends accepted this without hesitation. A picture, showing a former student, his wife and small child, who looked much like Simi, was put on display in the living room in order to confirm this story. In the summer of 1944, Germans were billeted in the Meijerink home and they themselves moved away to friends. Then, in September 1944, with the fighting coming close to Arnhem, the entire population of the city was ordered to evacuate. The Meijerinks found a place in nearby Velp, taking Simi along. . At that same time, a Jewish girl called Tineke was also taken in until the liberation of the area in April 1945. The fact that all survived was seen by the Meijerinks as the guiding hand of the God of Israel. Simon stayed on a number of months until his mother, who had survived in hiding nearby, came to pick him up. Soon afterwards they immigrated to Israel and contact was lost. In 1992, Simon put an ad in a Dutch newspaper, looking for Truus and Annie – the only names he remembered. They saw the ad and contact was renewed and maintained ever since. On January 27, 2008, Yad Vashemrecognized Hendrik Johan Willem Adriaan Meijerink, Aaltje Johanna Meijerink-Boese and their daughter Truus Meijerink as Righteous Among the Nations.