Aaltje Croles
| Geslacht: | Vrouw | |
| Vader: | Jelle Croles | |
| Moeder: | Jacomina Koning | |
| Geboren: | 25 Apr 1907 | Leeuwarden |
| Overleden: | 5 MRT 1991 | onbekend |
| Aantekeningen: | Last Name: Croles First Name: Aaltje Alias: ALIE Date of Birth: 25/04/1907 Date of death: 05/03/1991 Rescuer's fate: survived Nationality: THE NETHERLANDS Gender: Female Place during the war: Leuwarden, Friesland, The Netherlands Rescue Place: Leuwarden, Friesland, The Netherlands Rescue mode: Hiding File number: File from the Collection of the Righteous Among the Nations Department (M.31.2/3788) In 1935, Abraham Salomon Levisson became Chief Rabbi of Leeuwarden, Friesland. During the occupation, the German authorities ordered him to move to Amsterdam. During the five years that they had lived in Leeuwarden, the rabbi and his wife, Adèle, had made many friends in Friesland. Among these friends was Jacominia Croles, the widow of Chief Justice Croles, who had consistently said that Amsterdam was too dangerous a place for Jews and that the Levissons should return to the North. Rabbi Levisson refused to leave Amsterdam, but in the winter of 1942--1943, he begged Jacominia Croles to find a hiding place for his baby daughter, Jocheved. Before long, an unknown man from Sneek, Friesland, came for Jocheved, but he did not tell her parents that she was being taken to Leeuwarden, to the home of Jacominia. Jacominia lived with her elder sister and her two unmarried daughters, Aaltje (Alie) and Klarke. Alie took care of the baby. Hiding Jocheved was especially difficult because she had striking red hair that made her stand out. Thus, Aunt Alie never took the baby out for a walk in the city. Apart from the doctor, no one in Leeuwarden knew that the daughter of the towns former Chief Rabbi was living with the Croles family. Rabbi Abraham Levisson died in Bergen-Belsen, but Adèle Levisson and her sons, Salomon and Jehuda, escaped to Friesland ten minutes before the Germans came to apprehend them. The Croles ladies helped these fugitives to disappear. In 1944, when the Allies bombed Arnhem, Jacominias youngest daughter, Menzina, accompanied a young Jewish woman by bicycle from Arnhem to Leeuwarden, so she too could hide in the Croleses home. This guest also stayed there until the liberation. After the war, the Levisson family immigrated to Israel, but Jocheved never lost contact with the Croleses, and especially Alie, after whom she named her daughter Elisheva. On December 28, 1987, Yad Vashem recognized Aaltje Croles and her mother, Jacominia Croles-Koning, as Righteous Among the Nations. |
|