Overview
- Date
-
Circa 1942
- Locale
- Amsterdam, [North Holland] The Netherlands?
- Photo Credit
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Hans Reens
Rights & Restrictions
- Photo Source
-
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Copyright: United States Holocaust Memorial MuseumProvenance: Hans Reens
Keywords & Subjects
Administrative Notes
- Biography
- Hans Reens (born Hartog-Gabriel Reens) is the only son of Jozef Reens and Suzanne Gokkes Reens. He was born on February 17, 1940 in Amsterdam, Holland where his family owned a gas station and a bicycle store. In May 1943, Hans' parents decided to place him in hiding with the van Vlijmen family, who lived in Hilversum. The following month Jozef and Suzanne Reens were arrested and sent to the Westerbork transit camp and from there directly to the Sobibor death camp, where they were killed on arrival. In the late summer of 1944, the family van Vlijmen took Hans on vacation to nearby Eerbeek. While they were there, in August 1944 the Dutch underground conducted an armed attack on a prison in nearby Arnhem freeing all of the prisoners. In retaliation, the Germans conducted mass arrests. During this Aktion, someone denounced the van Vlijmen family for keeping a Jewish child. Four and a half year old Hans was taken away to Westerbork. Since the Germans were not sure of his identity, he was included in the group of so-called "Unknown Children." On September 13, 1944, this group of about 51 "Unknown Children" was shipped to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and from there to a children's home in the Theresienstadt concentration camp. In May 1945, after the liberation, Hans was brought back to Eindhoven and the van Vlijmen family located him and took him back in. Franciscus and Henderika van Vlijmen realized that they were unable to provide Hans with an adequate Jewish education, and they agreed that he should be adopted by his maternal uncle, Zadok Gokkes and his wife Judith Glasbeak. Hans always stayed in close contact with the van Vlijmen family. Hans Reens immigrated to Israel in 1961, and on September 28, 1980, Franciscus and Henderica van Vlijmen were recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among Nations.
- Record last modified:
- 2007-07-05 00:00:00
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1163369
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