Johannes Hubertus Baaijens

Geslacht: Man
Vader: Bartel Baaijens
Moeder: Alida van der Beek
Geboren: 13 Aug 1909 Heusden
Overleden: 31 Dec 1976 Kortenhoef
Aantekeningen: Personal Information
Last Name: Baaijens
First Name: Johannes
Hubertus
Alias: JAN
Date of Birth: 13/08/1909
Date of death: 31/12/1976
Rescuer's fate: survived
Nationality: THE NETHERLANDS
Religion: ROMAN CATHOLIC
Gender: Male
Rescue
Place during the war: Hilversum, Noordholland, The Netherlands
Rescue Place: Hilversum, Noordholland, The Netherlands
Rescue mode: Hiding
File number: File from the Collection of the Righteous Among the Nations Department (M.31.2/11919)
Commemoration
Date of Recognition: 19/09/2010
Ceremony organized by Israeli diplomatic delegation in: The Hague, Netherlands
Rescued Persons
Tromp, Frank
Rescue Story
Baaijens, Johannes
Baaijens-van Rouwendaal, Gijsbertha
Kool, Petrus Johannes Francisco
Kool-van Waes, Anna Catarina
Sara Frank (later, Tromp) born in 1912 in the northern town of Groningen, was working as an intern at the school of the Jewish Rudelsheim Stichting in Hilversum when the Netherlands were occupied in May 1940. With the start of the deportations in the summer of 1942, Sara received a Sperre, a temporary deferral from deportation, since she was working in an educational framework. However, in the spring of 1943, when most Jews had already been deported, the Germans started to deport the sick and children in Jewish institutions. They came to the school in Hilversum, taking all the children as well as the staff, on a day that Sara happened to be off. Immediately, she went to the parents of her friend in town, the van Dams, in order from there to look for a place to hide. Staying with them would have been too risky since a van Dam daughter had been arrested for resistance activities and Mr. van Dam himself was Jewish. The van Dams therefore took her to their neighbors, Petrus and Anna Kool, who could be trusted, as Petrus was active in a local resistance group. In addition, the Kool children, in their late teens, were involved in bringing Jewish children to hiding addresses, among whom was then three-year-old Anneke Beekman. The Kools’ home, however, could also only be temporary because they were running a pension and Sara might be seen by one or more of the many temporary boarders. Sara thus had to stay in a room in the attic all day. At night she slept with the Kool daughter in her room in order leave the bed in the attic ‘cold’, just in case unexpected searches would detect a ‘warm’ bed in the attic.
After a few months with the Kools, towards the fall of 1943, Petrus Kool was arrested and thus Sara had to instantly leave. Friends of theirs, the Baaijens, who lived close-by in Hilversum, were willing to take her. The Baaijens were a young couple with a newborn baby. They fully realized the danger involved, and prepared a special hiding area for Sara in one of the closets in their home. Sara was to stay indoors at all times so that no one would know of her presence there. She kept busy helping out with household chores. The Kools and the Baaijens kept in touch during the entire period and from time to time Sara was moved back to the Kools when visitors came to the small Baaijens home or if imminent danger was foreseen. Towards the end of the war, Sara returned to the Kool family for a longer stay. During the very last days, she was taken in again by the van Dams. When a police raid took place there, she was luckily not detected.
Sara survived the war and stayed in touch with both the Kools and the Baaijens thereafter.
On September 19, 2010, Yad Vashem recognized Petrus Johannes Francisco Baaijens and Gijsbertha Baaijens-van Rouwendaal as well as Petrus Johannes Kool and Anna Catarina Kool-van Waes as Righteous Among the Nations.

Gezin 1

Huwelijkspartner: Gijsbertha van Rouwendaal geb. 1 Nov 1909 overl. 25 Nov 1988
Huwelijk: 17 MEI 1939 Hilversum