Figure 1.--This Dutch family took in a little Jewsish girl named Irma. The family was that of Martinus van de Tilaart. Here we see his daughter Bettie, his wife, Irma, and his son Tonnie, we believe in 1946. Notoce hoe Irma is holding Tonnie's hand. They lived in the village of Zijtaart, a Catholic village in North Barbant near the Belgian border. This photograph was taken after the War. A Dutch caption reads, "Op Hoeve Corsica: Mien van de Tillaart, Bettie (of Berta) van de Tillaart, Irma (een Joods meisje dat van 1943 tot 1946 bij hen woonde), en #? (misschien broertje Tonnie van de Tillaart?) (Foto: collectie Liesbeth Vissers - van de Tillaart.)

This Dutch family took in a little Jewsish girl who they called Irma in late-1943. This was rather a late date. By that time the NAZIs had rounded up an deported most Dutch Jews to the death camps. The family was that of Martinus van de Tilaart. They lived in the village of Zijtaart, a Catholic village in North Barbant near the Belgian border. This was very dangerous, both for van de Tilaart and his family. We do not know how Irma came to the family. Given the date, she may have been brought by the Resistance rather than Jewish friends. The photograph here was taken after the War, but there is a photograph on the previous page taken during the NAZI occupation. A Dutch reader writes, "It is likely that most of his neigbors knew what he was doing, but they were good people and no one reported him. It is amazing that those people felt free enough not only to take Irma in, but to go outside and even make pictures of her. I am sure that most people knew about it, since such small villages were very close-knit, considering that they all had large families and often were related to one another." The consequences of being discovered were severe, not only for the Jews, but also fpr the Dutch people hiding them.

Irma

The Little Jewish girl here was Selma de Windt. The name suggests that the family was a Dutch Jew and not a foreign Jew who had sought refuge in the Netherlands. She was only 1 1/2 years old in 1943 when she was brough to the Sutch village of Zijaart. We know nothing about her family. They may have been from Amsterdam, but we do not know this for sure. Many Dutch Jews lived in Amstersdam, but the NAZIS in 1940 and 41 concentrated Jews from other parys of the country there. They began to deport Jews from Amsterdam in 1942 and by 1943 many of the Jews there had been deported. Apparently her parents were deported and did not survuive the War. Few Dutch Jews did. We do not know how Irma was separated from her family.

The Underground

Somehow the Underground got hold of Irma in late 1943 and tried to find a safe place for her outside Amsterdam. Gré van Dijk was an underground courier and looked for a place for her. This was rather a late date. By that time the NAZIs had rounded up an deported most Dutch Jews to the death camps. Thus children like Irmaould have had to be broughtto safty by the Dutch underground. Dutch Jews were eithrer in hiding or had been deported. Unfortunately fir the Jews, the NAZIs had organized and carried out the Holocaust in the Netherlands before the Inderground was well organized. The Dutch were shicked at the NAZI invation and the fall of France. For many it looked like the NAZIs had won the War and there was no effective way of resisting them. In addituiin the NAZIs made a pretense at first of a civiklized occupation. Only in 1942 with German military revers in the East and Amrerican entry in the war did a NAZI defeat seem possible. NAZI conscription of Dutch workers for War wirk in the Reichj also fueled Dutch resistance, but by this time it was too late for the Jews. There was probably little the Underground could have done, but they could have saved moire individuals if they had been better organized.

The Train

Gré Van Dijk contacted Bertha van de Tillaart who seems to have also been involved with the underground. We assumed that Van Dijk was a man, but a Dutch reader points out that a many with a baby on a train would have aroused suspicion. The Dutch account uses the word "Koerierster" which is the female form in Dutch. Gré is a girl's name in Holland. (Gré Brouwenstijn was a famous Dutch opera singer.) English is the only language I know where you have to guess whether somebody is male or female (singer, teacher, etc.). If Gré had been a man he would have taken extra risks to be on a train with a baby in his arms I think. He would have been more likely to have been asked for his documents and why he was traveling. So it was safer to have a woman deliver a baby to be hidden. And this also explains why she probably contacted a woman in Zijtaart. A Dutch reader who was a boy during the occupation tellsus, "During the war we did not travel much. When we went to Amsterdam my father took us in the car, but at that time I made many trips by train to Utrecht where my grandparents lived, a trip of about 20 minutes from our village. I did not notice any Dutch or German police, although there always were Wehrmacht or Luftwaffe soldiers going in or out of the station. I twice encountered inside the train I was travelling Gestapo (Secret State Police) who checked the papers of all passengers. These guys were not in uniform, but somehow you knew right away that they were members of the Gestapo. Best thing for some people was to leave the train as soon as possible before they could be arrested. Children (I was 16 when the war ended) did not carry any papers. I only remember a ration cards when my mother sent me to the store. I am sure that the Gestapo did not demand any documents from a woman with a baby, unless she looked Jewish or suscpious in some way. And they would have asked for the woman's and not the baby's papers. But a man alone with a baby in his arms would have been suspicious and might have been questioned. All adults had to carry an Ausweis (ID). I believe this requirement was for ages 18 years of age."

The van de Tilaart Family

Van Dijk asked her to find a home for the little girl. Bertha was afraid to ask anybody, especially since everybody in Zijtaart, who was willing to help, already had someone in hiding. After checking with her husband KMartinus, the family decided to take in the little girl. The family had a farmed named Corsica.

Zijtaart

The village that Van Dijk chose for Irma was Zijtaart. This was a Catholic village Barbant, the southern province near the Dutch frontier. We do not know why van Dijk chose Ziijtaart. There seems to have been quite a bit going on on the village. I don't think there were other Jews there, but there were some young individuals that had been conccriopted for war wotk in the Reich by NAZI occupation officials. One such individual was Bert Meijer who was already staying with the van de Tillaarts. There were others hiding in the village. We are not sure just how representative Zijtaart was. This was probably the same in other if not most Dutch villages. Some interesting informaztion about Zijtaart can be found at Kroniek van het jaar 1944.

The Little Undergrounder

Bertha picked up the little girl at the Veghel railroad station. Gré van Dijk brought the girl and Bertha put her in the basket at the rear of her bicycle and took the little child home. Bertha relates: "To the neighbors it was a girl from Rotterdam that had no parents anymore, to strangers she was my little daughter. It was a very sweet girl, who's real name was Selma de Windt, but we called her Irma." Of course she was oblivious to the momrentous events going on around her. She was an extrodinarily lucky little girl. Notice how lovingly she was cared for. It is incredable to think that whe there were men thsat went to exrodinary lengths to mutder her and other Jewish children. Here she is dressed up very sweetly (figure 1). The two children of the family wear work clothes, including wooden shoes.

Danger

This was very dangerous, both for van de Tilaart and his family. All it would have taken was for one persin to inform. The NAZI authorities gave rewards to informers. The photograph here was taken after the War, but there is a photograph on the previous page taken during the NAZI occupation. A Dutch reader writes, "It is likely that most of his neigbors knew what he was doing, but they were good people and no one reported him. It is amazing that those people felt free enough not only to take Irma in, but to go outside and even make pictures of her. I am sure that most people knew about it, since such small villages were very close-knit, considering that they all had large families and often were related to one another." The consequences of being discovered were severe, not only for the Jews, but also fpr the Dutch people hiding them. A reader tells us, "I think that the father would have been arrested and sent to one of the four concentration camps: Vught, Amersfoort, Schoorl or Westerbork. Possibly Vught in the province of North Brabant. Westerbork was mainly a transit camp for Jews being sent to Auschwitz or other annihilation camps in Poland. Amersfoort also was a Durchgangslager (transit camp), but some prisoners remained there till the end). Their horses and livestock would have been confiscated and the family would have been made destitude. It was extremely dangerous to do those things, but still there were always brave people who risked their lives--and that of their own family. I remember a family in our street who suddenly was enlarged with some children, "cousins" of their own kids. We understood that those children were Jewish. What later happened to them I don't know."

After the War

We do know that Irma survived, Here we see her after the War. The van de Tilaart family gave Irma up in 1946, An aunt came to Zijtaart and took her home with her. They had grown very close. With pain in their heart the van de Tillaart family and especially Bertha let her go. The fact that an aunt came for must have meant that her parents had been killed by the NAZIs. Since then they have remained in contact.

Sources

Govers. Dr. Frans. Corridor to the Past: Veghel, an Intersection in East Brabant, 1940-1945 (Hapert 1983). pp. 158-59.

Created: 5:23 AM 11/25/2008
Last updated: 5:45 AM 12/4/2008