Anje Knot

Geslacht:	Vrouw
Vader:	Hindrik Knot
Moeder:	Hendrikje Smit
Geboren:	27 Nov 1888	Roodeschool gem. Middelstum
Overleden:	21 Dec 1977	onbekend doen
Aantekeningen:	Last Name: Boer First Name: Anje Maiden Name: Knot Date of Birth: 27/01/1888 Date of death: 21/12/1977 Rescuer's fate: survived Nationality: THE NETHERLANDS Religion: CALVINIST Gender: Female Place during the war: Nietap, Drenthe, The Netherlands Rescue Place: Nietap, Drenthe, The Netherlands Rescue mode: Hiding File number: File from the Collection of the Righteous Among the Nations Department (M.31.2/11528) Anje Boer, a widow since 1936 with five grown children, born between 1918 and 1922, lived in the tiny village of Nietap in the northern province of Groningen. Anje had been brought up strictly Calvinist, and was taught that one does not refuse help to people in dire need. Thus, when in the fall of 1942 a few months after the start of the deportations of the Dutch Jews to the camps in the East, Anje’s son Harm, born in 1919, asked his mother if she was willing to take Jews into hiding -- she responded positively without hesitation. Harm was active in a local resistance cell and was informed that three Jewish women needed a hiding place urgently in order to avoid arrest. Anje realized the risk in doing so, but her need to help prevailed. The Gans sisters soon arrived: Elli Denneboom-Gans (1910-1991), whom Anje recognized from a local store that Elli’s husband had owned; her sister, Allegonda de Beer-Gans, (1913-1966), and some time later also Henriette Polak-van Beets, (1902-1952). All were from the nearby village of Leek, where the arrest of the Jews was planned for a few days later. The husbands of all three women had already been arrested and deported earlier that year and all perished in Auschwitz. None of the women had children. The Boer sons prepared a hiding area in the attic. No one knew about the presence of the women in the Boer home. The Boer house was searched three times by the infamous Landwacht (auxiliary collaborating police force), who were not only searching for Jews, but also for resistance activists and people who had refused to report for forced labor in Germany, like Harm. Once they surrounded the Boer home, when all were home having dinner. The police were noticed from a distance so that all had just enough time to go into their secret hiding place. Anje immediately grabbed all the plates together and hid them as well. Once the Landwacht police were in the house, Anje kept her cool while the search was underway and no one was discovered. In the late fall of 1944, Anje Boer was ordered to take in evacuees from the southern province of Limburg where there was heavy fighting. Initially she was hesitant, as the Jewish women were still with her. However, she decided that sharing the secret with the refugees was less suspicious then inventing a reason why not to take them at all. Luckily, no one talked, and the three women saw the liberation of the area in April 1945 in the Boer home. In January 1945, Harm Boer was arrested by the SD and taken to a concentration camp in Germany. He returned a sick man. On February 26, 2009, Yad Vashem recognized Anje Boer-Knot as Righteous Among the Nations.

Gezin 1

Huwelijkspartner:	Berend Boer	geb. 19 Nov 1873 overl. 19 Jan 1937
Huwelijk:	29 Apr 1915	Roden
Kinderen:
	Harm Boer	geb. 1919