Cor shared with us the story of his family hiding Jews during the Holocaust. The first two years the Nazis occupied the Netherlands, & even though there were anti-Jewish laws, they were not being deported. In 1942 that all changed. One day Cor & his father were in the city square in Amsterdam which was 12 miles from their village. Thery noticed empty street cars lined up in the center of town. Then from all the side streets came Nazi & Dutch officers who began arresting the men & throwing them into the streetcars. Jews were only allowed to shop after 4:00 p.m. meaning fresh vegetables & fruit were gone & they had to purchase what was left. The timing for the raid was on purpose, for the streets were full of Jews. It was very dramatic to Cor as he saw the men running helter skelter trying to hide or escape. Cor said, "I can never remove from my eyesight the women & children running after the street cars crying & shouting."
He & his father went home & his father said to his mother,"We have to help the Jews." His mother responded that they already were a family of eiight in a country with scarce food on a teacher's salary. His father told her they would regret it if they did not help, & she agreed. No Jews remained in their village as they had already been sent to Amsterdam so his father had to go to the underground. He told them his family would hide two Jews, but he had to be screened by a commitee & after meeting with them, his father came home in tears. He was a very religious man & found there were two Communists on the committee & he refused to deal with them & got turned down. His wife told him to overcome his feelings & that Communists could be good also.
Cor had to ride his bicycle to Amsterdam to pick up the Jews & had to make two trips for two Jews. He rode in the rain because German soldiers would not go out in the rain & get their uniforms wet because of the type of material used. Jews were not alowed to ride on bikes, but Cor had them take off therir yellow stars & he knew how to avoid the checkpoints. Thus, for two years Cor's family hid a mother & her son in theiir attic. The mother of course is now dead, but Paul, the son, is 93 & still lives in Amsterdam.
More families were needed to hide Jews so his father gave Cor a list of 81 friends & family, all more more prosperous than they were, & told him to go ask each if they would help. He was not to push, but, but he was not to accept "no" for an answer. Cor knew immediately where to go first. His father's brother was prosperous, lived in a big house, & was generous helping out their father & sometimes Cor's family. He only had one child, & a good job. Cor's own father was quiet. His uncle was the opposite, outgoing with a great sense of humor. Cor & his brother actually wished their uncle was their father.
When Cor asked his uncle if he would help by hiding Jews, his uncle laughed, & said, "Do you think Jews would help us?" Cor felt provoked & even though it was not common to speak up to an adult, he told his uncle that he knew not all Jews would help just like not all Christians wouild help. His uncle was angry & told him his father was risking the lives of a family of eight & he would never do that.
He went to other people & got various replies. Some said this wouid not happen to innocent people meaning the Jews were not innocent. He remembered hearing at school that Jews were Christ killers. Others told him Jews were not allowed to fight, but they should defend themselves. Then he went to his Aunt Antonio & asked her to help. She replied, "Cor, do you really think that I should take Jews into our home & take their pride away? They should help themselves." Her answer was, "No!"
Out of 81 people, only seven agreed to help so Cor's family & the others brought 13 Jews safely through the war. Cor feels his family failed miserably saying, "Our indifference, our failure to reach out will always be with me. If everyone would hqve helped, we could have saved hundreds. We could have done more." Cor may not feel that he & his family did enough, but I believe they are heroes.
After being on the road all day, we entered the beautiful city of Budapest around 5:00 p.m. We checked into the gorgeous Hilton on top of the hill. The city is divided into Buda on the hill & Pest down below with the Danube River inbetween. The Hilton is situated in a 13th century Dominican church with a baroque facade of a 16th century Jesuit college. It is a 4-star as all of our hotels have been, & they have all been right in the center of the city making it very safe to wallk to city squares. When Dana & I entered our room the view took our breath away. We were overlookiing ther Danube with the splendid, gigantic parliament buildiing across the river. Quite honestly it was hard to leave our room, but we had an hour to explore the beautiful area followed by a delicious dinner at our hotel. Several years ago I was in Budapest witih four girlfriends I was teaching with at La Crescen,t & I remembered that we had eaten at the Hilton & I had the best Hungarian Goulash. I repeated it & again & found it to be out of this world. Yummy bread & wine made the meal a complete winner.
The view out our window when we arrived.
We ended our evening with a glass of wine at an outdoor restaurant on the castle wall (shown above during daylight)) looking out at Pest all lit up. It was pure magic.
