Echt bijzonder om hier de onderduikgegevens van mijn opa en oma te vinden.

Kind van Elisabeth Meta

Hello Mirjam,
I am the granddaughter of the family who hid your grandparents. My grandparent's names were Harmen and Wiepkje Zijlstra. They lived at the property which now has the address Richard Jungweg 2, Rotsterhaule, Fryslan. They immigrated to the U.S. in 1952. I live in Stillwater, Minnesota. I have a couple of photos with your grandmother in them.

Hello Phyllis,
My name is Des. I am the grandson of Elizabeth Meta, and Mirjam is my aunt. My family and I would love to get in touch with you.

Hello Des,
I am so pleased that you have contacted me!

Four of my aunts and uncles that were children in the household are still living, all in Minnesota, U.S.A. - Romke, Haije, Bonne, and Trintje. Romke, the oldest, is now 95 years old. And Trintje, the youngest, is now 85 years old. She is helping me to learn Dutch! They are all healthy and still living in their own homes. Meindert, my father, was probably still living at home when your great-grandparents first arrived there, but then went to Germany in December 1942 as a zwangsarbeiter and worked as a cow milker near Freckenhorst for the rest of the war. Lutske, the oldest daughter, was also still home during the war. She died last year of Covid at the age of 96.

Near the end of the war, probably around January 1945, Romke was called up for the arbeitsinzet. But he dove under and joined the other four Jews when they needed to be in the hiding place.

As maybe you already know, the hiding place was a small box in the haymow--4 feet tall by 10 feet by 6 feet according to Romke’s memory, 8 feet by 8 feet according to Haÿe’s. But you had to crawl on your hands and knees through the chicken coop to get into it. The last person into the hideout was designated to be Ome Lex, your great-grandfather. He had to crawl backwards and, using a broom, brush the crawl marks out of the dirt and dried chicken manure as he went. Then he had to back into the hideout and move a plank over the small access hole.

Alexander was always called Ome Lex, and Gesma was always called Tante Geesje. This was in case the young Zijlstra children would accidentally talk about them in school or church. The listeners would simply think it was their Uncle and Aunt who had come to visit.

There are many more stories. Thankfully, each of the children wrote down their memories of that time, which were collated by an aunt into an unpublished manuscript named "Through the Chicken Coop." It is on my to-do list to provide a copy of it to the Fries Versetsmuseum in Leeuwarden. You also need to receive a copy.

Besides that manuscript, Bonne wrote a memoir (in English) in which the early chapters talk about the war and hiding the Jews. And I am writing a paper or book about my father which includes many of these stories with added detail and historical context. I am 64 years old and retired in early 2019.

Of course, I am also interested in any stories you might have. And what your questions might be.

I will end this entry with a story about my Pake Harmen, the father of the household that hid your great-grandparents. His daughter Trijntje (called Tena here in the U.S.)tells the story of how at a party for him for his 100th birthday, her sister-in-law "said to Dad, 'Harmen, why do you think God is letting you live this long?' Dad thought for a split second and said, 'Because I took care of God's people.' Dad lived to be 106 years old."

Hi Phyllis,

Your stories have touched me deeply. We know very little about our family in the Netherlands. I would like to share with you my email. If you can send me an email to this address: sothatwecankeepintouch@gmail.com — then I can email you back on my personal email. (I’d rather not have my personal email on here.)

Hi Phylis, we are Philip Sarluy's stepchildren. 3/5/2020 he passed away. Philip was not so talkative about the war. A few years ago he met Norma and a nice friendship developed. he has visited her a lot in Amsterdam. we don't know much about the time he went into hiding, but I think that this shaped Philip into the person of a friendly, intelligent person who was there for everyone. A very sweet person if you got to know him better with whom you could have instructive conversations at ease with you. Philip has become a professor of mathematics.
warm regards stepchildren an Philip

Hello! I am so pleased to hear from you!

My Omke Bernie (Bonne) kept in touch with "Flip" for many years after the war. Bonne and Philip were about the same age. It sounds like Philip and his father Alex were “cut from the same cloth” – an old saying we have. From what I have been told, Alex was a chemist by training. He experimented with curing hides to make leather for patches for clothes while he was in hiding at the Zijlstra home in Friesland. Alex also helped the two youngest Zijlstra children, Bonne and Trijntje, with their mathematics homework! So it is no surprise that his son Philip became a mathematics professor.

As I understand it, Philip and his sister Elsie were being cared for by two other families. Their parents (who were in hiding at my grandparents’ home in Friesland) had no knowledge of where they were. They could never see each other during those years, but they could mail letters to each other.

I have tried to learn how these letters were sent, but I haven’t been able to figure it out. Possibly they were transported and delivered entirely through the resistance. Or maybe the resistance opened and checked each of the letters to make sure there was no incriminating information and then put them in new envelopes with the householder’s address on them and sent them through the regular mail.

After the war ended, my grandparents kept in touch with Alex and Gesma, and that is probably when Bonne met Philip. (In 1945, the two boys turned ten years old – Bonne in April and Philip in November.) As an adult, it was Philip who had written to Bernie and told us how it was that Alex and Gesma came to hide in my grandparents’ home. Here is Bernie’s translation of Philip’s letter: “Nothing short of a miracle. In 1942, the family lived in Hilversum, Holland, near Amsterdam. My mother visited a public library, wearing the star of David, as per German orders. A hand (she never saw the person) shoved a piece of paper into the book she was reading. After a few no-good addresses, my parents, in despair, went to the mysterious address in Friesland. That was your parents.” My suspicion, though, is that the address was of someone in the Fries resistance who then brought them to my grandparents. Nevertheless, it is a beautiful story and a miracle.

It would be interesting to know more about Philip’s life during the war. Did he pretend to be a child of the people with whom he was staying, take on their last name, and go to school with the rest of the Dutch children? Or did he have to stay hidden in an attic or a barn somewhere? Do you know? If he was in Hilversum, by Amsterdam, one wonders about whether he got enough food. His parents up in Friesland ate a lot of potatoes and were able to get milk, cheese, and butter from the cows and goats on their farm. Sometimes they ate pork, raised and butchered in secret, even though it was not kosher.

This past year, two more of the children from the Harmen Zijlstra family have died. Romke died in October at age 95 and Haije died a month later at age 93. Only Bonne (age 88) and Trijntje (age 86) are still living. They are both doing quite well.

Thank you for posting your note about Philip. The Jewish people were vibrant human beings with indescribable and horrifying conditions placed on them. May we never forget.

We know that Flip went into hiding with a family in Friesland. Norma was the daughter of this family. Unfortunately I don't have a last name.
Nice to hear from you about the background of his father and mother.