Ode to Girls of PietThe girls of Piet
Hanna van de Voort, Nico Dohmen, Hansje van Lochem and Piet Meerburg, the students who brought the Jewish children to Limburg, photographer unknown, Collection Resistance Museum Amsterdam.
Perhaps strange to pay tribute to courageous Amsterdam women under this title. But this is how they entered history, these young women who brought Jewish children from the Crèche on Plantage Middenlaan to hiding addresses.
Piet in the title is Piet Meerburg, known as (co)founder of the Amsterdam Student Nanny Center, Student Cinema Kriterion and the Film Museum.
Piet laid the foundation for the Amsterdam Student Group (ASG) during the Nazi occupation with his fiancée Hansje van Loghem, Wouter van Zeytveld and his fiancée Tineke Haak. The ASG was concerned with getting Jewish children into hiding, referred to in post-war sources as “the children's work.
Tineke and Hansjes remained not the only “ASV girls. Hansje lived with her roommates Iet van Dijk, Gisela Söhnlein and Mieke Mees at 32 Rubens Street. Their AVSV fraternity house was across from the headquarters of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) on Euterpestraat. Hansje, Iet, Gisela and Mieke saw and heard daily the violence to which arrested Jewish compatriots were subjected. They wanted to do something.
Iet van Dijk, medical student and resistance woman in World War II, collection Jan van Dijk
Regarding her work in the resistance, Tineke Haak said after the war: “I have done the illegal work solely and purely to combat (Jodenvervolging) the persecution of the Jews .’’
The ASG initially focused on 'abandoning' Jewish babies, approached for this by the Amsterdam general practitioner Hein Fiedeldeij Dop.
From the summer of 1942, the ASG closely collaborated with the Utrecht Children's Committee to help Jewish children go into hiding. Gisela Söhnlein was the contact person with Utrecht until her arrest in 1943. The first stop for the children in hiding was usually 'Kindjeshaven', the Utrecht daycare run by Trui van Lier and Jet Berdenis van Berlekom. Alice Brunner was also active in the Utrecht Children's Committee. She would join the ASG later in 1943.
Anna Gisela Wieberdink-Söhnlein, photo: Roel de Boer, Wikimedia Commons
After the betrayal of the children's work in Utrecht in 1943, the ASG built its own networks in Friesland and Limburg (Tienray). Then, they began systematically smuggling Jewish children out of the nursery opposite the Dutch Theater on Plantage Middenlaan. Walter Susskind, the manager of the Theater, Henriëtte Pimentel, director of the nursery opposite the Dutch Theater, and the childcare workers Sieny Kattenburg and Virrie Cohen were involved in the plot. Along with the director of the Reformed Teacher Training College next to the nursery, Johan van der Hulst. Hansje van Loghem and Iet van Dijk were the ASG contacts for the nursery.
Piet Meerburg: 'The problem for men was that as a twenty-one-year-old boy, you were extraordinarily vulnerable. You could, so to speak, be plucked from the train to work in Germany. So we had a very hard time traveling. Moreover, it was strange to see such a boy walking around with children and babies. Therefore, Wouter and I did the work behind the scenes, the organizational work. We did go to Friesland and Limburg where all our contacts were, but as little as possible with children. That was done by the girls.' (De Groene, 1998).
The 'Field Workers', as 'the girls' were called, brought the children by train and/or boat to their hiding addresses. The blonde children were sent to foster families in Friesland, while the darker-skinned children went to Limburg, so that they would stand out as little as possible in appearance. The children were provided with a 'Rotterdam certificate' to demonstrate that they were survivors of the bombing of Rotterdam in May 1940. Tineke Haak was one of the regular contacts between the ASG and the Limburg helpers.
When Alice Brunner moved from Utrecht to Amsterdam, she became active in the ASG. She picked up her hidden children under the clock at Central Station or on the Rokin. In May 1944, Alice brought the Jewish childcare worker Virrie Cohen to Tienray. In Tienray, midwife Hanna van de Voort provided hiding addresses.
In the period 1942-1943, the ASG smuggled an estimated 300-400 Jewish children out of the crèche. In July 1943, the last crèche children, the staff and director Henriëtte Pimentel were transported via Westerbork to extermination camps. The Hollandse Schouwburg and the crèche on the Plantage were closed. 'The girls' of the ASG continued to travel. They visited the foster families monthly to provide them with money and ration cards and to see how the foster children were doing.
Sometimes the trips had a different purpose. When Hanna van de Voort was arrested by the SD in August 1944, Mieke Mees traveled to plead for Hanna at the Sicherheitsdienst. After nine days of torture, Hanna was released and she was not transported to the women's concentration camp Ravensbrück.
In November 1944, Iet, together with Mieke, made the river crossing from occupied Northern Netherlands to the liberated South. They carried a microfilm with the draft text 'Legislation for War Foster Children.' This draft law was prepared with foresight, as a fierce debate arose after the war: should the hiding children remain with their foster parents or should they be integrated into Jewish communities?
“During the period 1942-1943, the ASG is estimated to have smuggled 300-400 Jewish children from the nursery.”
In July 1943, the last crèche children, the staff and director Henriëtte Pimentel were transported via Westerbork to extermination camps. The Hollandse Schouwburg and the crèche on the Plantage were closed. 'The girls' of the ASG continued to travel. They visited the foster families monthly to provide them with money and ration cards and to see how the foster children were doing.
Sometimes the trips had a different purpose. When Hanna van de Voort was arrested by the SD in August 1944, Mieke Mees traveled to plead for Hanna at the Sicherheitsdienst. After nine days of torture, Hanna was released and was not transported to the Ravensbrück women's concentration camp.
In November 1944, Iet crossed the river with Mieke from occupied northern Netherlands to the liberated south. They had a microfilm with the draft text 'Legislation on War Foster Children' with them. This draft law had been drawn up with foresight, because after the war a fierce debate arose: should the children in hiding stay with their foster parents or should they be integrated into the Jewish community.
Mieke Mees, medical student and resistance fighter during World War II, collection of the Resistance Museum Amsterdam
The 'girls' hardly spoke about their resistance work after the war. In his publications about World War II, Dr. L. de Jong attributed 'the children's work' to Gezina van der Molen and her life partner Mies Nolte with their Trouw group. This is incorrect. Besides the Utrecht children's committee and the ASV group, the Naamloze Vennootschap was also active in Amsterdam to rescue Jewish children.
Interest in the resistance work of women during World War II is growing. For example, a biography of Iet van Dijk, written by her great-nephew, was published in 2018. Astrid Sy modeled her character Kaat in her book 'Do Not Name Names' after Gisela Sóhnlein.
Since 2022, Atria has been organizing a Wiki writing afternoon in the lead-up to the May 4th remembrance to give a face to unknown resistance women: https://atria.nl/agenda/wikivrijdag-verzetsvrouwen-26-april-2024/
The 'girls of Piet':
Hannah van Loghem, nickname Hansje, (born April 12, 1917 - ?-? 1983) student of History and resistance fighter during World War II. (Tweede Wereldoorlog. )
Hanna van de Voort (Meerlo, 26 november 1904 - Utrecht, 26 juli 1956) maternity nurse and resistance woman in World War II.
Ida Jetskalina van Dijk, nickname Iet, (Winschoten on October 18, 1919 - Amsterdam September 4, 1973) medical student and resistance woman during World War II.
Anna Gisela Wieberdink-Söhnlein, nickname Gisela, (Santiago Chile) October 3, 1921 – November 16, 2021) law student and resistance woman in World War II.
Maria Mees, nickname Mieke, (Castricum, December 22, 1917 - Vught, August 17, 1977) medical student and resistance woman during World War II.
Alice Gertrud Brünner (Zurich December 20, 1919 - date and place of death unknown), English student and resistance woman during World War II.
Ernestine Haak, nickname Tineke (Heemstede, May 17, 1922 - Amsterdam, November 19, 2004) social worker and resistance woman during World War II.
Bronnen:
Onder de klok; georganiseerde hulp aan Joodse kinderen 1942-1945. Bert Jan Flim Uitgeverij Kok Kampen 2012
Johan van Hulst (104) redde honderden Joodse kinderen. Hanneloes Pen in Parool 11 juli 2015
Iet van Dijk. Onbekende Heldin. Irene Overduin in de Leeuwardercourant 25 april 2017.
Iet, Jan J.M. van Dijk, Uitgeverij Pharos 2018.
https://www.bibliotheek.nl/catalogus/titel.417546475.html/iet/ Biografie van de Amsterdamse medicijnenstudente Iet van Dijk (1919-1973) die actief was als verzetsstrijdster tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog en ruim honderd joodse kinderen in veiligheid bracht.
Noem geen namen; Astrid Sy. (2021) ISBN: 9789046314296
‘Vervolgd in Limburg’’, van Rens, Herman (2013). Uitgeverij Verloren. ISBN 978-90-8704-353-7.
https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tineke_Haak
https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hansje_van_Loghem
https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iet_van_Dijk
https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gisela_S%C3%B6hnlein
https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Brunner
Period
1940– 1945
About
Ode by Anke Visser to the Girls of Piet.
Brave Amsterdam women who brought Jewish children from the nursery on Plantage Middenlaan to hiding addresses.
Girls of Piet
Perhaps it's strange to pay tribute to brave Amsterdam women under this title. But this is how they went down in history, these young women who brought Jewish children from the Crèche on Plantage Middenlaan to hiding addresses.