Maria IJpes

Geslacht: Vrouw
Vader: Pieter IJpes
Moeder: Fijtje Beute
Geboren: 20 Sept 1901 Amsterdam
Overleden: 15 Jan 1983 onbekend
Beroep: arts
Aantekeningen: Last Name: Brouwer
First Name: Maria
Maiden Name: Ypes
Title: DR.
Date of Birth: 20/09/1901
Date of death: 15/01/1983
Rescuer's fate: survived
Nationality: THE NETHERLANDS
Gender: Female
Profession: GYNECOLOGIST
Place during the war: Amsterdam, Noordholland, The Netherlands
Rescue Place: Amsterdam, Noordholland, The Netherlands
Rescue mode: Hiding
When the war broke out, Dr. Maria Ypes (later Brouwer) was a gynecologist living in Amsterdam in a house with a waiting room and a doctor’s office that served as her clinic. Her housekeeper slept on the couch in the waiting room while Maria herself slept on a bed in the living room. In this crowded space she hid Rebecca Henriette Tafelkruijer-Ricardo, a Jewish woman, for a year and a half, and Rebecca’s baby, Joost, for nine months. Maria’s own mother, aunt, and sister, Dr. Catharina Ypes, also lived with her for more than six months towards the end of the war. Rebecca met Maria when she became pregnant and came to her as a patient in 1942. In February 1943, Rebecca gave birth to a baby boy and in August of that year, after having evaded a razzia in their neighborhood, the family decided to go underground. The baby was placed with her husband’s non-Jewish aunt, and Maria offered to take in Rebecca while her husband went into hiding elsewhere. Rebecca became the housekeeper’s assistant and took over from her when she later left. In the summer of 1944, Dutch Nazis living next door to the husband’s aunt heard the baby crying and betrayed the one-and-a-half-year-old Joost and the aunt, who were arrested. The baby was taken to Westerbork. In the meantime the baby’s father prepared a forged document which certified that Joost did not have four Jewish grandparents, and with this Maria and Rebecca, dressed as doctor and nurse, took their bicycles and rode to Westerbork. They were able to free Joost and rode back with him to Amsterdam, a hazardous journey during which they were sheltered by Dutch NSB, who had no idea who they had taken in. Maria took Joost in, appointing Rebecca his “nanny,” and patients who asked about him were told that he was a half-Jewish child whose parents had been deported. In the meantime, Maria’s mother, aunt, and sister had joined the household and food was becoming scarcer every day. Maria’s sister, Catharina, who was active in the underground, managed to get some food on her trips to the north of the country and Maria, as a practicing physician, received extra ration cards. Rebecca, who had become pregnant again in November 1944, received extra rations under her assumed identity. The household made it to the liberation in May 1945 and the Tafelkruijer family was reunited. Rebecca and Joost owed their lives to Maria Ypes, who never received any reward for saving them.
On October 26, 1982, Yad Vashem recognized Maria Brouwer-Ypes as Righteous Among the Nations.

Gezin 1

Huwelijkspartner: Hendrik Brouwer geb. 1 Sept 1889
Huwelijk: 9 Juli 1953 Amsterdam