At the De Zorg farm, on the Oude Sloterweg in Nieuw-Vennep,the Netherlands, the Boogaard family, led by the 75-year-old Johannes Boogaard, showed remarkable compassion. They helped hundreds of—mainly Jewish—people in hiding, providing refuge in every corner of the yard: an air raid shelter, on the haystack, and in a car. Their compassionate actions during the war were a beacon of hope for those in need.
The Boogaard family, guided by their Christian duty to protect ‘the people of God,’ Demonstrated remarkable selflessness. They risked their own lives to provide refuge to many people in hiding. The sons Hannes Jr. and Pieter, who lived nearby, also showed selflessness by taking in Jewish people in hiding.
On October 6, 1943, police raided the farm after arresting an individual carrying illegal meat. Suspecting the property housed an illicit slaughterhouse, officers launched an immediate search. Inside a shed, Detective Pieter Van Duyn discovered a group of hidden children. Before he could alert his colleagues to the hiding place, one of the adults in hiding took decisive action, shooting and killing the detective in the farm’s orchard.
The remaining officers fled and warned more colleagues. Shortly after the murder, German soldiers, together with Dutch SD members and police, searched the area. Willem Boogaard, a son of owner Johannes Boogaard, hid for hours in a ditch behind the tall grass together with twenty children. They escaped the raid.
More than thirty others—including “Grandpa” Hannis, his daughter Aagje, and his son Piet—were arrested and deported to Camp Vught. Though Aagje eventually returned home sick, her brother Piet perished in the camp. The Nazis later transferred Johannes Boogaard from Vught to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, where he was gassed to death on February 13, 1945.
Freddy Deen, one of the individuals who had hidden on the property, later recalled the farm’s notoriety: “The bus driver once called out ‘The Jew Farm’—that’s when you knew you had to get off. It was common knowledge.””
Sources
https://www.haarlemmermeermuseum.nl/05-verzet
https://www.oorlogsbronnen.nl/artikel/moord-op-boerderij-de-zorg-maakt-einde-aan-onderduikplaats
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