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The hiding places
Farms, houses, schoolbuildings, churches, potato heaps, barns, huts, holes, essentially anywhere could be considered a hiding place.
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Farms
The remote farms in the Frisian countryside were naturally the best places to hide. On a farmstead there were plenty of good hiding places to be found. Furthermore there was sufficient food and you could easily spot the enemy approaching from afar. An additional advantage of this situation was the fact people did not need to stay indoors all the time.
Adults were able to help with all kinds of chores in and around the farm and children sometimes attended the local school. People hiding in cities and villages often did not enjoy such liberties. There was always danger of being exposed. To keep out of sight as best as possible some people spent several years in an attic or some other secluded space.
Churches
Churches, too, offered several possibilities to hide. The attitude of the preacher and the verger were of decisive consequence in such cases. Hendrik Harm Gaaikema, preacher of the baptist parish of Dantumawoude, was of the ‘right’ persuasion. This also applied to the female verger. Her two sons Johannes and Jan de Hoop hid in a hole that was dug out in the garden. This hole could be reached through the goat stable behind the bike shed of the church. Later on two more individuals joined them, Jurjen Riemersma being one of them. In daytime he hid in the attic of the vestry. Here he kept himself busy drying tobacco leaves. If a raid was imminent he crawled behind the shutter of the organ. There were also people hiding below the pulpit. They even had a radio at their disposal there, tuning in to ‘Radio Oranje’ and other channels prohibited by the Germans.
Special wishes
Sometimes when looking for a hiding place the health situation of someone had to be taken into account. There was the case of a member of the ‘LO’ requesting ‘Gerrit’ (pseudonym for Gerard Haagen in Drachten) the following, Tell me, about this particular man in our municipality. This man would like to go into hiding as soon as possible as he assured us expressly. (…) Do you have a place for this person, for his wife (an ambulant TB patient) and their daughter who is about eleven years old. Consequently a place with lots of light and air and where at least the woman is able to go outside as often as possible.
It should be clear that trying to match supply and demand, considering the special demands some people had, must have been quite a task.