Voskamp Roelof & Janna (Hietkamp)

Voskamp, Roelof & Janna Wilhelmina (Hietkamp) The Krukziener family---father Emanuel, mother Marianne, and two sons, Bram and Nic--- initially hid with Jacobus and Sipkje de Swart* in Zutphen, Gelderland. They would have remained there but Jacobus de Swart took part in the railroad strike and subsequently went into hiding in his own home, and searches were expected. Thus, in mid-September 1944, Resistance member Frederik Bouman* took the Krukzieners to the home of Roelof and Janna (Mina) Voskamp in a Friesland village that served as a center of underground activity. Roelof and Mina had four children in their early twenties and 17-year-old twins, Evert and Diene. They all assisted their parents in the dangerous task of hiding Jews and also in searching for and taking care of downed British pilots. Evert also worked as a courier for the Resistance. However, the Krukzieners soon had to leave because the Germans began to suspect that there were many underground activities going on in the neighborhood. They installed a radio receiver a few hundred yards from the farm and took a number of other steps to ascertain what exactly the local residents were up to. The Voskamp children dug a hideout in a nearby field and the Jews lived there, literally like animals, for six weeks. The Voskamps brought them food at night but the shelter was so low that the fugitives could not stand up in it; they had to crawl around during their entire time in hiding there. The situation became even more unbearable when the groundwater began to rise and, on November 10, 1944, the Voskamps had to pull their charges out of the waterlogged dugout. The following day, Frederik Kabbes* welcomed the Krukzieners into his home. Roelof and Mina, who had intended to shelter the family until the end of the war, parted from the Krukzieners with tears in their eyes. On June 30, 1983, Yad Vashem recognized Roelof Voskamp and his wife, Janna Wilhelmina Voskamp-Hietkamp, as Righteous Among the Nations.