Sanders Antonius & Francisca (Genugten van)

Sanders, Antonius Cornelus Sanders-Van Genugten, Francisca Hulsen, Johannes Hulsen-Bollen, Antonia Lucia Samuel Jacob de Haas, his wife Marianne (Ans) née Katan, both in their late twenties, had two children, Jeanette (Janny) de Haas, born in 1937, and Emanuel (Menno) born in 1939. Together with his mother, Jeanette de Haas-van der Giessen, in her sixties, they were the only Jewish family living in the town of Boxtel, in the southern province of North-Brabant, when the Germans invaded the Netherlands in May 1940. As Samuel had a hobby of breeding Bouvier dogs, he made friends with many in the area with the same hobby. One of these was Antonius (Toon) Sanders from the nearby village of Sint Oedenrode. When in the summer of 1942 the first Jews were summoned to report for ‘work in the East’, de Haas turned to Toon and his wife Francisca Ciska asking for help. “When danger comes too close, you bring your family over to our home, and from there we will see what we can do” was Toon’s reaction. And so, in the spring of 1943, when the Jews were ordered out of the provinces, the five members of the de Haas family left their home and moved to the Sanders home. Soon after they left their home in Boxtel, German troops moved into it. Toon and Ciska, were farmers in their forties who had three small children. Keeping all five de Haases at their own home was too dangerous, especially as one of their neighbors was a collaborator, and so they started looking for other hiding addresses for part of them. Samuel stayed with them until the liberation of the area in September 1944. A special hiding area was prepared in their home, which turned out to be a good one as he was not detected during a house search. After the collaborating neighbor made threatening comments to Sanders, other neighbors were successful in silencing him. Jacob’s wife Marianne (Ans) was taken to the home of Johannes and Antonia Hulsen and their nine children, also farmers in the same villagearea. Ans helped out in the busy household, and became good friends with the family. She too stayed until the liberation in September 1944. Grandmother de Haas and the children were less lucky in their hiding place. The farmers who took them in wanted money and especially treated the grandmother badly. When Samuel found out about their predicament, he asked the Sanderses if they could please also take in his mother Jeanette – which they did. The children stayed where they were until the liberation. After the war, the Hulsens said that all the members of the de Haas family, who had all survived, could come to their farm until they could go back to their own home in Boxtel. All families stayed in close contact. On February 21, 2012, Yad Vashem recognized Toon Sanders, Ciska Sanders-van Genugten, as well as Johannes Hulsen and Antonia Lucia Hulsen-Bollen as Righteous Among the Nations.