Story: Werff van der Barteld Tjibbeles & Maaike

Koster van Groos Willem Hubertus & Gerardina Cornelia
Werff van der Barteld Tjibbeles & Maaike (Kooistra)
Meer van der Gelf & Gerlantje (Hiemstra)

Jacob Willem (Wim) Cohen was born in 1923. His father Beike Cohen (b. 1890) had a flourishing company that traded in used fabric and metal. Wim’s mother Aaltje Cohen (née Klein, b. 1900) was a housewife. Beike and Aaltje had six children and the family lived a religious Jewish life in Leeuwarden in the northern Dutch province of Friesland.

In 1941, after the February strike, the intentions of the German occupiers of Holland were clear to Beike Cohen. Afraid that his son would be sent to do forced labor in Germany for the ‘Arbeitseinsatz’, Beike sent Wim to a farm in Ferwoude, where he worked as a farmhand. In the meanwhile Wim attended the Jewish secondary school in Leeuwarden, where he excelled in mathematics. The Jewish school was founded when the Germans forbid Jews to take part in business life or to teach at non-Jewish schools. The principal’s name was Hartog Beem (b. 1892), who lived with his wife Rosette (Retje) Kannewasser (b. 1896) and their children Eva and Bram (b. 1932 and 1934) since 1929 in Leeuwarden. The couple had lost their firstborn son Salomon in an accident when the boy was only six years old. Hartog Beem was a teacher of the German language and he was a loved and respected principle.

In the summer of 1942 Beike Cohen took Wim with him to visit a former business contact, who offered the Cohen family his help in case they would need it in the future. In the beginning of November 1942 the Cohens heard rumors about a coming razzia and they knew that the time had come to go into hiding. The first ten months Wim Cohen hid with Willem Hubertus and Gerardina Cornelia (Dinie) Koster van Groos (born in 1896 and 1901) in Leeuwarden. Willem Koster van Groos was a physics teacher at the school where Wim Cohen was learning. The Koster van Groos couple also hid Hartog and Retje Beem. There were many books about mathematics in the house and Wim used his time by studying mathematics. Wim’s siblings were in hiding at other places and his parents Beike and Aaltje Cohen were hidden in Warga, a village in the province of Friesland, at Barteld and Maaike van der Werff (born in 1900 and 1907). After ten months hiding with the Koster van Groos family, Wim Cohen joined his parents at the van der Werff family. The journey from Leeuwarden to Warga was dangerous; Barteld and Maaike van der Werff personally took him by bicycle to their home. Wim was sitting on the back of Maaike’s bicycle and when they approached a German check point, Barteld pretended falling off his bike so that he drew the attention of the guards and Maaike and Wim could pass by unnoticed. Barend van der Werff, who was actually owner of a shipyard, was active in the resistance. Barend and Maaike van der Werff had three children and hid the Cohen couple and their son Wim until the liberation of Warga in April 1945. Also the other five Cohen children survived the war in hiding elsewhere.

Hartog and Retje Beem in the meanwhile had sent their two children Eva and Bram into hiding in Ermelo. They were of the opinion that they children would have a better life there, in a family where they would be able to move around freely and not being locked up in a room. The children indeed had a good time there, went to school and even learned to play the violin. Until one sad day in 1944 someone betrayed them. Eva and Bram Beem were arrested and perished in Auschwitz, eleven and nine years old. During the two years in hiding in Ermelo Eva and Bram Beem had sent postcards to their parents who were hiding at the Koster van Groos family in Leeuwarden. Willem and Dinie van Groos hid the postcards under the floor, where they were forgotten, until in 1985 the house was restored and the 61 postcards appeared when the floor was opened.

After the arrest of Eva and Bram Beem, Hartog and Retje Beem were brought to another family, which was regarded to be safer under those circumstances. They arrived at Gelf and Gerlantje van der Meer (b. 1904 and 1903), who lived in Joure, also in Friesland. The van der Meer couple was married in 1932 and a year later their daughter Liesbet Dirkje was born. They lived in a small rented house where they run a little shop in the living room. Hartog and Retje Beem lived with the van der Meer family until the liberation.

After the war Hartog Beem wrote a couple of books about the lost Jewry in Holland and about four hundred articles about his profession. Wim Cohen became a Mathematics Professor. The Cohen and Beem families always remained grateful to their rescuers, who risked everything to save their lives, without expecting anything in return.

On 22 October 2018 Yad Vashem recognized Willem Hubertus & Gerardina Cornelia Koster van Groos and Barteld Tjibbeles & Maaike van dec Werff (Kooistra) as Righteous Among the Nations.

Echtpaar Van der Werff