A Sacred Trust > Righteous Among The Nations

"The inactions of our country [Canada] underscore the empathy and humanity of our grandparents, who could also have done nothing." 

"A supposed civilized country could ignore the suffering around it, but Moeke and Opa could not."

"It was dangerous. It was an act of heroism that until now, was unrecognized."

"What did they have to lose? I would say everything."

Elizabeth Quinlan, granddaughter of Eimericus and Anna Maria Thijssen 

 

"I think they [her deceased parents] would be terribly surprised."

"I think it would be almost unthinkable for them because they didn't see themselves as heroic."

"They did the right thing at the right time. Doing the right and honourable thing doesn't need recognition, they would say."

Jantina Veldboom Devries, daughter of Hendrik and Frederika Veldboom 

 

"Were they heroes? They would laugh They were farmers. Parents. Neighbours who kept chickens and worried about harvest."

"Were they saints? They would object. They made mistakes. They felt fear. They were gloriously, beautifully human."

"We call them what they were: Righteous. Not perfect. Not fearless. Not superhuman."

"Simply people who saw clearly when the world went blind." 

Idit Shamir, Israeli Consul-General, Toronto 

Elizabeth Quinlan, granddaughter of Eimericus and Anna Maria Tijssen; Idit Shamir, consul general of Israel in Toronto and Western Canada; Jantina Veldboom Devries, daughter of Hendrik and Frederika Veldboom, at a presentation at the Israeli Consulate in Toronto, June 26, 2025. Photo by Ron Csillag

 

Hiding Jews -- coming to the rescue of Jews who were hunted down in Nazi-occupied Europe to save them from annihilation at a time when Nazi Germany launched its Final Solution during World War II -- was a criminal offence, one which offenders could be guaranteed to pay the swift punishment for with their lives. Yet there were some people, although aware of the consequences should they be caught, their life-saving mission revealed to authorities, went on to do what their conscience demanded of them regardless.

 

They and their courage and determination have been noted and honoured at Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust museum and memorial. They were, dead or living, inducted into the humanity-elite gathering called Righteous Among the Nations. 51 countries produced 28,486 individuals so recognized for their courage as non-Jews risking their lives to rescue Jews during the  unthinkable era of the Holocaust. They did so, while all around them others professed not to notice that Jews were being arrested, incarcerated in death camps, and systematically murdered.

 

Two recent Posthumous inductees represented by two Dutch families were honoured during a ceremony in Toronto. The four members of the two families had moved from the Netherlands to Canada shortly after the war. Their children and grandchildren, gathered from across Ontario, Edmonton, Texas and the Cayman Islands were joined by Ontario members of Provincial Parliament, and the occasion was marked by "certificates of honour" and medals inscribed with the Talmudic blessing of "Whosoever saves a single life, saves an entire universe". 

 

Hendrik and Frederika Veldboom, who hid a Jewish couple in their rural farmhouse near the border with Germany and rescued their newborn son during the Holocaust. Photo by Handout

 

Food scarcity of the time, occupation and the reality that neighbours might notice something unusual and report them to the authorities risking shipment to a concentration camp or being shot then and there, did not stop Eimericus and Anna Maria Thijssen, parents of seven children of their own. from welcoming a two-and-a-half year-old Jewish girl, Elia (Annie) Muller, brought to them by the Dutch underground. The child soon called them Opa (Grandpa) and Moeke (Grandma). With them, the child was kept safe from 1943 to six months following Holland's liberation in 1945, when she was reunited with her parents. 

 

Now 84 years of age, that young Jewish girl, living in Holland, spoke via video hookup to dredge her still fresh memories of a large family, playing with other children "and being naughty"; no need to fear anything. Now an artist, Elia Muller's work focused on themes of memory and resistance -- "a tribute to the people who saved me". 

 

In 1950 the Thijssens emigrated to Canada, settling with four of their children in Ontario to work on a farm. They moved eventually to Strathroy where Eimericus became a local golf course groundskeeper and his wife Anna Maria worked at a canning factory. Their granddaughter Elizabeth Quinlan, a retired judge from Barrie, noted during the ceremony Canada's miserable record of avoidance in admitting Jewish refuges during the era of the Second World War, lowest among western countries. 

 

Newly married Hendrik and Federika Veldboom were members of the Dutch underground. Their rural farmhouse was turned into a hiding place for Jews and for young Dutch men averting forced labour. Lena Kropveld and her husband Yitzchak Jedwab, a cantor, were among the Jews harboured by the Veldboom family. Secretly married in 1942, they spent months in a hidden space behind a wardrobe. 

 

Lena gave birth to a baby boy, and Hendrik Veldboom placed him in a cardboard box, bicycled at night to place the baby on the leader of the  underground resistance's doorstep. The newborn, registered as abandoned, was taken in by the underground leader's family to live among their own eight children for the duration of the war years. Eventually the child was reunited with his parents, following liberation. Following the end of the war, the Veldbooms came to Canada in 1952, settling in Brockville, Ontario as farmers.  

 

The Righteous Among the Nations Award honours those who, in selfless acts of bravery and courage, risked their own lives to save the lives of Jews during the Holocaust.