Johtje Vos

Little Johtje Vos was born in 1909 in Amersfoort, Holland unaware that in years from then, she would be in grave danger, along with her future husband, and would save dozens of lives. Johtje Vos was brought up in a strict religious home (Christian to be exact). If Johtje or her two sisters had done something wrong, they were severely punished. However, when they did something good, nothing was said. That was what was expected. In Johtjes' case, there was no anti-Semitism and children in her family were brought up with respect and open-mindedness for others.

Johtjes’ mother was an intelligent person with a good sense of humor. She translated 52 books from English, German, and French into Dutch, but she had to do it secretly under Johtje’s father, because women were not allowed to do that sort of job then. So Johtjes’ father who was brilliant at mathematics got credit for it all, even thought he could not speak a word in any language other than Dutch.

As a young woman Johtje tried to live in Paris to be a freelance journalist which was a scandalous job back then, and Johtjes’ parents were horrified by the mere idea. So instead, Johtje went to Egypt to cover the wedding of King Farouk for the Dutch press instead. Johtje Vos was already married by then to a painter who was a German man, but anti-Hitler. The new couple moved to Holland because Johtje wanted her children to walk their first steps in Holland. Johtjes’ father gave her and her husband a home to live in. They had two children and in 1940, divorced. In 1992, Aart and Johtje married and continued living in the same house as the house that Johtje had lived in with her first husband.

The first thing that the new couple did that was involved in saving Jews was to keep a couple Jewish friends of theirs overnight. “We were not heroes. We were just people who helped other people. When you see a child in the water, you jump in and pick it up. When you see a person in difficulty, you try to help. I find that very normal,” Johtje Vos said. How it happened was some person came up to the Vos's and asked them to keep a suitcase for him while he went to the ghetto. To their amazement, this friend was a Jew! That was not known in Holland, for everyone was Dutch, and that was that. So then the Vos’s said of course, and took the suitcase. Then a week later, a guy came up and said that their child was in danger, so the Vos’s agreed to take the child in. The two people said that they didn’t have anywhere to go. Then, the Vos's became more and more involved with the underground.

That was the moment that Aart Vos and Johtje Vos made their decision. They decided to go on like this, instead of stopping this ‘job’. One night, two musicians came to the Vos’s house, Nap and Alice de Klijn. But they had to go to the underground, for they were too well known in Laren. But they came back from time to time because their children stayed undercover at Aart and Johtjes’ house for a while.

More and more people came to the house. The Vos's had mattresses all over the floor, and they were camouflaged in case the Germans came in. The Germans came in many times, but the Vos’s just said it was their wedding and had other excuses, and each time they told the Germans to get out.

Only during a raid did the Jews have to hide, and when they hid, they hid in a tunnel made from the back of the house (the art studio) to the woods. This tunnel saved lives.

The Vos’s had a friend who was chief police, and he would phone the house whenever necessary to warn the people when there was going to be a raid. They didn’t lose any people they hid, but one couple, the Hilfmans refused to come, and they said this… ”We are Jews. This is our fate, and we have to accept it.” Johtje asked, “Are you cowards?” “We don’t know,” they answered. “But we can’t do it.” They had a three-year old daughter, Moana, who Johtje begged for, but they insisted on taking. Finally, a few hours before the family was taken away, they let an electrician pretend that the child was his, and since she had a broken arm, he said he was bringing her to the hospital. He then brought that girl to the Vos’s house, where she was like a daughter to them.

After the war, the Vos’s wanted to keep Moana for her parents were not found, but the Jewish Community said that they had so few Jews left, that they ought to be brought up by Jews. So Moana was brought up by her mother’s sister, her aunt. She is now married to a Dutchman, (not a Jew) and they live in Holland.

As Johtje's first husband had been German, she had German papers. It was very helpful because it gave her double the amount of food marks. But it was a negative because people would spit at her and be angry with her for being German.

One of Johtjes’ daughters was upset because she felt as if her parents were putting the other children and Jews before her, and putting not only themselves in danger, but also her in danger. But later, she understood.

One day when Aart went to visit the home of Van Gogh’s nephew and he gave Aart an envelope. Aart asked what was in it, and the nephew replied, “It’s for the work you’re doing to save Jews." Aart said, “You have the wrong Vos. Look around, you’ll find the right person, but it’s not me.” Aart said the people talking were the biggest enemy, and he had to be careful of even friends.

One day after a bombing, Aart saw a wounded German soldier, so he put the man on his bicycle, and took him to his camp. Later everyone asked Aart, “How could you save a German?” And he would say, “Listen, you don’t know what you’d do unless you were in that situation. My wife and I were brought up to have respect for life.”

Johtje Vos was brought up strictly religious, and still is religious. Aart Vos was not brought up religious, and still is not. This goes to show you do not need to be religious, but you could because that helped Johtje do what she did, and be brave.

I believe that the Vos’s did the right thing, and I believe so because just to sit there and see all of your friends being carried off would be terrible. I think that this couple really showed great bravery, because those two people were ordinary people, who were afraid of raids, bombings, but they stood up against the Germans and their soldiers. The couple started out just with a suitcase, and then made a big choice; whether to keep on saving lives and risk their whole family’s lives, or just sit and let everything happen, right in front of their eyes. Those two people were courageous, and still very considerate. They stood up to the people around them, and even Aart Vos refused to accept money for that might betray them all, even though money was very important in Holland then.

The Vos’s had been ready for everything. When a raid came, they would escape thru the tunnel (made by the Vos family) with a head notice from the police. The Vos’s were ready to accept anyone who wished to come into the house for safety. Even when that was illegal to do.

I believe that I would not have been able to do all that the Vos’s, try as I might. I think that by rescuing a small amount of people, you could make any person happy. The small amount of rescuing saved these lives, and made a hopeful future for the people who went into hiding at the Vos’s house. This made a joyful and pleasing life for the rescued people.

I really am glad that these two people Aart and Johtje Vos saved these lives because… “Whoever saves a single soul saves the world entire.” By Falmund. I really think that that quote is true, and how a small act like what the Vos’s did could make so many people live. Now that I live in the 21st century, I think that his action of one couple changed the future for many, by giving them a life to look forward to, a family, and happiness. I truly am glad that that couple did what they did.

The Vos’s means hope for the future to me, and someone I can look up to. It means humanity, a gift, and courage. It means the strength to move on in the world, and something to keep my spirits up whenever I think about it. The Vos’s gave me an example to follow.

Resources Used
Title: Aart and Johtje Vos Author: Interview
Annotation: It gave me a full lifetime of childhood of Aart and Johtje Vos, along with the adulthood.

Title: Johtje Vos Author: Interview
Annotation: It gave me a thorough story of what Johtje’s rescuer life was about, and it gave.