Kroes Jeltje ; Niece: Luik Anneke (Dijkstra)

Smit-Kroes, Jeltje Luik-Dijkstra, Anneke The Jewish couple, Jacques Bolle (b. 1906) and his wife Bep, née Alvarez Vega (b. 1906), lived in Amsterdam. They had no children. With the start of the deportations of the Dutch Jews to the camps in the East in the summer of 1942, the Bolles still managed to stay in their home, but as the round-ups intensified over time, they decided to try and hide instead of waiting for their turn to be called up. They contacted relatives, who in turn had connections with people in the underground, and in the fall of 1943, after being given false identity papers, they were directed to Jeltje Smit-Kroes. Jeltje was a widow in her sixties, who lived in the village of Echtenerbrug in the northern province of Friesland. Jeltje had been widowed early on in her marriage, and had remained childless. She was active in village church life, and when asked to hide a Jewish couple, she saw it as a heavenly sign to come forward. When the Bolles were referred to her, she asked her then 17-year-old niece, Anneke Dijkstra, to come live with her to help with the dangerous task ahead. Anneke agreed and when the Bolles arrived they found that the two women were living in a spacious home that had been Jeltje’s parental home. Anneke in fact managed the household. The Bolles found a welcoming environment with Jeltje and Anneke. They helped out with the many household chores but needed to stay at home at all times, out of sight of strangers. Only Jeltje’s sisters were in on the secret. Danger of betrayal was always a reality, and one day in 1944, when they were warned of upcoming house searches, Anneke took the Bolles to friends at the other end of the village. After a few days they were able and allowed to return to Jeltje’s home. In September 1944, the underground contact person asked the women to please take in an elderly Jewish lady, who at that time was hiding in a chicken coup under very difficult conditions – they agreed. Thus, Mrs. vanEngel-van Esso joined the Bolles in the Smit/Dijkstra home. When again some months later the same contact person was arrested, the situation for all became very precarious. Even though Jeltje and Anneke feared that the person would break under intense interrogation, they allowed the three Jews to stay on with them. Luckily, their names were not revealed by the man. Again, at the beginning of 1945, a number of resistance people in the area were arrested, but again they were lucky and Jeltje and Anneke’s names were not mentioned. Jeltje and her niece thus managed to hide the Bolles and Mrs. Van Engel successfully until the liberation of the province in April 1945. The Bolles stayed in touch after the war with their rescuers. On January 17, 2010, Yad Vashem recognized Jeltje Smit-Kroes and her niece Anneke Luik-Dijkstra as Righteous Among the Nations.