People in hiding
People in hiding are people who hide, often for long periods of time, to avoid being picked up by the police or Germans. The reason for going into hiding was usually to escape persecution of Jews or forced Labour Deployment, or because one was wanted for illegal activities.
The Frank and Van Pels families, along with Fritz Pfeffer, had to go into hiding because they were Jewish. But it wasn’t just Jews who went into hiding in the Netherlands. The lives of for example resistance workers were at risk too. Like the Jews, they too needed to find places to hide. People chose a wide variety of places to go into hiding. Some people hid in cities, others in the country. Hiding places could be large or small. Some people had to stay inside all day, while others were able to walk around freely outside. They were the ones with well made forged papers.[1]
The decision to go into hiding
According to estimates, approximately 300,000 people of which probably 28,000 Jews, hid in the Netherlands, either for a short or long time period.[2] For the resistance, the question of "to hide or not to hide? ", was in fact no real question. If they didn't want end up in prison, they had to go into hiding. For many Jewish families, it was a question as well. A difficult question. Why go into hiding when you had done nothing wrong? And perhaps, the camps were not that bad.
Children in hiding
Some Jewish parents faced a difficult decision during the war. It was sometimes easier for an individual child to go into hiding with a host family. For the parents, that meant leaving their child behind at a hiding place on their own. Sometimes even babies had to be hidden this way. Some helpers were prepared the risk taking a child in. For adults, it was harder to find a good hiding place. The Jewish children hidden this way simply became one of the family. The hosts might have claimed the child had come from Rotterdam, where many records had been lost in the bombings.[3]
Betrayal
Of the 25,000 Jews who went into hiding, 8,000 were discovered. They’d often been betrayed.[4] If you were arrested in hiding, you would be sent as a criminal to transit camp Westerbork’s prison block before being deported to a concentration camp. For the helpers, the outcome varied. Sometimes only those in hiding were arrested and their helpers left alone, but other times the helpers were arrested too. In theory, there were heavy penalties for being caught helping a Jew. In practice, that wasn’t always the case.
Footnotes
- ^ Zie verder: Jaap Cohen, How unique was the Secret Annex? People in hiding in the occupied Netherlands, Website Anne Frank Stichting (geraadpleegd 4 december 2023).
- ^ Zie bijv.: Marcel Prins & Peter Henk Steenhuis, Andere achterhuizen. Verhalen van Joodse onderduikers, Amsterdam : Athenaeum-Polak Van Gennep, 2010 (zie ook de bijbehorende website: Hidden like Anne Frank); Michal Citroen, Een adres: de geschiedenis van de joodse onderduik, Amsterdam; Alfabet Uitgevers, 2024.
- ^ Voor literatuur over onderduikhulp aan Joodse kinderen en de ervaringen van ouders én kinderen, zie: Bloeme Evers-Emden, Geleende kinderen. Ervaringen van onderduikouders en hun Joodse beschermelingen in de jaren 1942 tot 1945, Kampen: Kok, 1994; Bloeme Evers-Emden & Bert-Jan Flim, Ondergedoken geweest. Een afgesloten verleden? Joodse 'kinderen' over hun onderduik, vijftig jaar later, Kampen: Kok, 1995; Bloeme Evers-Emden, Geschonden bestaan. Gesprekken met vervolgde Joden die hun kinderen moesten, 'wegdoen', Kampen: Kok, 1996; Bert-Jan Flim, Omdat hun hart sprak. Geschiedenis van de georganiseerde hulp aan Joodse kinderen in Nederland, 1942-1945, Kampen: Kok, 1996; Bloeme Evers-Emden, Je ouders delen. Een eerste onderzoek naar de gevoelens van eigen kinderen in pleeggezinnen in de oorlog en nu, Kampen: Kok, 1999; Marcel Prins & Peter Henk Steenhuis, Ondergedoken als Anne Frank. Verhalen van Joodse kinderen in de Tweede Wereldoorlog, Amsterdam: Querido, 2011 (zie ook de bijbehorende website: Hidden like Anne Frank); Bert-Jan Flim, Onder de klok. Georganiseerde hulp aan Joodse kinderen, Amsterdam: Gibbon Uitgeefagentschap, 2012.
- ^ Zie bijv.: Ad van Liempt, Kopgeld. Nederlandse premiejagers op zoek naar Joden: 1943, Amsterdam: Balans, 2002; Sytze van der Zee, Vogelvrij. De jacht op de Joodse onderduiker, Amsterdam: De Bezige Bij, 2010; Ad van Liemp & Jan H. Kompagnie (red.), Jodenjacht: de onthutsende rol van de Nederlandse politie in de Tweede Wereldoorlog, Amsterdam: Balans. 2011.