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Mazel
Toy!

page 49

onfa ilaShoa

"It would have been horrible not to help."

DAVID SACHS
Editorial Assistant

I

is the Anne Frank
story with a happy
ending.
That's how
Anneke Burke-Kooistra
describes her childhood.
Her parents, Dutch
Protestants, successfully
hid eight Jews in their
house during the Nazi
occupation of Holland
from 1942 to 1945.
gt
Anneke will reveal
details of her family's
Anneke's parents are shown in
heroic story on the eve
front of their Dutch house
of Yom HaShoah
where Jews were hidden during
(Holocaust
the war.
Remembrance Day) 7
p.m. Monday, April 12,
ple," she said.
in a free community program at
"When the war
Temple Emanu-El.
came, it was time
Her parents' courage so deeply
to show their
The sheltered Jews pose with Kooistra family members and British soldiers after the war's end. Anneke is
touched her that she's dedicated her
love and respect.
on the left, sitting on a soldier's lap. Her parents are in the center of the back row in this 1945 photo.
life, addressing 200 audiences, to
"My father
explain how everyday people took a
was part of the
ground. One couple had a grown
Guliane in Holland in 1983.
stand against evil.
Dutch underground. He realized
son and daughter, another had a
Anneke's mother came to the
She has visited Israel, lived on a
Jews were being taken away and
teen-aged son and there was one sin-
Holocaust Memorial Center in
kibbutz, married a Jewish man and,
asked my mother to help save peo-
gle man.
West Bloomfield in 1987 to
after converting to Judaism, raised
ple. It would have been too horrible
Through the underground, her
receive a Righteousness Award.
three children in the Jewish faith.
not to try to help. Their faith in God
parents would get falsified food
Her parents' names are inscribed
When she was nearly 4, her fami-
was their motivation."
coupons and shop in different stores
on the wall of the U.S. Holocaust
ly lived in the city of Utrecht, in cen-
Her father's actions, and those of
to deflect suspicion. Her mother also
Memorial Museum in
tral Holland. "Out of my parents'
her mother, Heiltje Kooistra-Bos,
obtained food from her friends'
Washington, D.C.
Christian religion, they had great
meant risking their daughters' lives,
farms. Her father's brothers and
Anneke's father died in 1984. Her
love and respect for the Jewish peo-
aged 2, 4 and 7, as well as their own.
mother's sisters also hid Jews.
mother, 83, is still living in the house
The family would
In 1962, Anneke went to Israel
where she sheltered Jews.
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have faced severe
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for four years. She met Donald
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"My parents' message of love
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punishment if
Burke, an American Jew, and mar-
must be spread," Anneke said. "I
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caught.
ried him. She and her husband now
have never taken it for granted that
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They did not
El
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reside in Mayville, north of Lapeer.
people would take an interest in my
know the Jews they
Anneke's parents received the
parents' story. I am always honored
At Temple Emanu-El event, daughter
hid. The Jews were
Righteous of the Nations award at
by it.
from different towns
to share righteous couple's story of
Yad Vashem. A tree on the Avenue of
"I feel proud that my parents had
and were channeled
the
Righteous
on
Yad
Vashem's
it
in
them to take a stand against
helping Jews escape Nazis in Holland. to the family
Memorial Hill was dedicated to
such evil. They did it because they
through the under-
them. They were honored by Queen
had love of God in their hearts."

4/9
1999