Klerckx Leo & Marie (Hofman)

Klerckx, Leo Henricus Hubertus Klerckx-Hofman, Marie Virginie Hubertina Marie Klerckx-Hofman had been a domestic servant with the Jewish family of Simon van den Bergh and Roosje van den Bergh-de Wilde in Amsterdam. She had grown up in Maastricht (prov. Limburg), but as eighteen-year-old she had made her way to Amsterdam for work. The van den Berghs became her second home. Nonetheless, after her marriage to Leo Klerckx who worked for the coalmines in Limburg, Marie moved back to her native town. The van den Berghs and Marie remained in touch. The Klerckxes had three children between the ages of 10 and 16. With the intensification of the anti-Jewish measures and the beginning of the deportation of the Jews, the van den Berghs started to look for a place to hide. In the autumn of 1942, they turned to Marie. She felt it was no more than her duty to help them and Leo was in complete agreement. As Jews were no longer officially allowed to travel, the Klerckxes’ daughter, Annie, traveled to Amsterdam to accompany them on the dangerous journey by train to the most southern town of Maastricht. Sometime later, a van den Bergh daughter, Bep, and her husband Harry van Geuns, joined them in hiding with the Klerckxes. The Klerckx family gave up one of their bedrooms for their wards. The four Jews stayed indoors at all times and helped out with household chores. A friendly neighbor, who was a local policeman, was often able to warn them when raids were imminent. Then, the 18-year-old Klerckx son, Pierre, who was himself sought for forced labor in Germany, and the Jews would hide in the haystacks and wheat fields of the surrounding farmland. When raids in the area intensified in the summer of 1944, it was decided to move the four Jews to a safer place in the village of Terwinselen, where they only had stayed a short time until the area was liberated in September 1944. Pierre Klerckx also went into hiding during those last months. After the war, the van den Berghs and theKlerckxes stayed in close contact. On October 11, 2001, Yad Vashem recognized Leo Henricus Hubertus Klerckx and Marie Virginie Hubertina Klerckx-Hofman, as Righteous Among the Nations.