Willem Boissevain

Geslacht:	Man
Vader:	Robert Lucas Boissevain
Moeder:	Helena Suzanna van Tienhoven
Geboren:	24 OKT 1930	Amsterdam
Beroep:		huisarts
Aantekeningen:	Boissevain Willem Personal Information Last Name: Boissevain First Name: Willem Rescuer's fate: survived Nationality: THE NETHERLANDS Gender: Male Place during the war: Haarlem, Noordholland, The Netherlands Rescue Place: Haarlem, Noordholland, The Netherlands Rescue mode: Hiding File number: File from the Collection of the Righteous Among the Nations Department (M.31.2/1743) Commemoration Date of Recognition: 03/01/1980 Ceremony held in Yad Vashem: Yes Rescued Persons Goldberg, First name unknown Goldberg, First name unknown Goldberg, Surname unknown, First name unknown Vecht, Jacob Rescue Story Robert Boissevain of Haarlem, North Holland, was active in the Resistance until his arrest in September 1943. He was involved in espionage and the distribution of forged papers. Helena Boissevain had six children living at home. The eldest, aged 21, was at risk because the German authorities were recruiting all able-bodied young men to work at forced labor in Germany. Despite this, Robert and Helena warmly welcomed a Jewish family, the Goldbergs, into the relative safety of their home. Dr. Goldberg, his wife and their daughter, settled in the Netherlands in the 1930s. He and his family survived the war in the safety of the Boissevain's home. Early in 1943, not long after the arrival of the Goldbergs, Robert himself had to flee. He was apprehended in September of that year and imprisoned in the "Oranjehotel" in Scheveningen for ten months. In June 1944 he was transferred to the Vught camp, from there to the Oranienburg concentration camp and then to the Zwieberg camp near Buchenwald. Robert died there of pneumonia and exhaustion in April 1945. During this period Helena had been forced to tackle a very difficult situation alone. For the last two years of the war food supplies were constantly dwindling and she had many mouths to feed. Over and above providing shelter for the Goldberg family, she was hiding her eldest son, Robert, in their own home, since he had been arrested and later released by the German authorities, and Jacob Vecht, who had escaped while being deported. Helena would search for food at farms in the countryside and traveled around on bicycles without tires, enduring the hardship. When her son Robert was arrested Helena's first attempt to free him was unsuccessful. Only two days later she returned in different attire and was able to persuade the Germans to release him. As she was leaving the prison compound, she managed to steal two bicycle tires by tying them around her waist in order to smuggle them out. On Christmas Day, 1944, during a German raid in the neighborhood, the Boissevains' home was searched but those in hiding were not discovered. On January 3, 1980, Yad Vashem recognized Robert Lucas Boissevain and his wife, Helena Suzanna Boissevain-van Tienhoven, and their children Robert, Maria, Helena, Willem, Charles and later (on July 22, 2007) Esther (Grinberg) as Righteous Among the Nations

Gezin 1

Huwelijkspartner:	Clari de Wit	geb. 28 OKT 1930
Huwelijk:	15 Sept 1956	Amsterdam