Righteous among the nations

JAN FISHMAN

Recently, I attended a ceremony in The Hague, honoring the family that hid my mother during the Shoah. After the ceremony, there was a reception at my Oom (Uncle) Jan’s house, where I was staying. That night, I couldn’t sleep. So I found some paper and a pen, and wrote and wrote. When I was done, I fell asleep.

The honor. It began simply. “It would be nice if they wrote something in the newspaper about what my parents did during the war.” These words, spoken by Alie Knol-Spiekhout, one of two surviving siblings of Jan Spiekhout, began it.

That her parents were deserving of honor was beyond doubt. They welcomed a three-year-old Dutch Jewish girl into their home, at a time when discovery meant imprisonment or death for the entire family. Alie’s father, Durk Spiekhout, was a local policeman. He defied the Nazi occupiers with whom he had to interact every day, sheltered my mother and became her “father.” Alie’s mother, Froukje Spiekhout-Grupstra, was mother to six (later seven) children, and warmly welcomed and cherished my mother as one of her own.

Clearly Alie’s parents were as much heroes as her brother Jan Spiekhout, the 22-year-old Resistance member who brought my mother home; the man for whom I and my uncle, Jan van Kreveld, were both named. But Alie’s simple words raised a problem: the son, Jan Spiekhout, specifically refused all honors during his lifetime. “I did what I did not for medals. I did what was right and that is all.” As my Oom Jan later said: “How could we honor the parents and not the son?” And he was right.

And, so began the delicate task of speaking with the great man’s son, Dirk-Jan Spiekhout. This job fell to my Oom Jan, the family diplomat. “I noticed that the Friesian museum honoring the Resistance has a list of members’ names. It specifically mentions those members who have been recognized by Yad Vashem [the Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes Remembrance Authority]. Isn’t history incomplete if your father’s name is not among them?”

In a careful, measured manner, Dirk-Jan responded, “Let me think about it.” Later, Dirk-Jan told me that he came to realize that it was his father’s right to refuse honor for himself, but his father could not deny others the privilege of honoring him. So the answer was “yes.”

Then the work began. Documents were collected and scanned, my brother, Ben Fishman, built a website to contain them all, and the dialogue with Yad Vashem was undertaken. This was a time of ups and downs: we remembered the heroes, but also mourned the victims. Some of us survived, so many (and so many children) perished in the camps.

Finally, after what seemed an eternity, Yad Vashem informed us that all three would be honored with a collective medal and certificate, and inscription of all three names on the Honor Wall in the Garden of the Righteous, in Jerusalem.

And so, I found myself, on Nov. 25, 2009, standing in a lovingly restored 18th-century synagogue in The Hague. I am standing with my mother, Amalia Boe-Fishman, and my brothers, Paul and Ben, tears burning in my eyes, as I applaud the Israeli ambassador presenting the Medal of Honor to Alie and Dirk-Jan, on behalf of all three, Durk, Froukje and Jan. We stand together to show the world: we are here, we are here.

Later that evening, I would speak with a much younger generation of Spiekhouts – the grandchildren of Jan. These bright, beautiful, young people seem to embody the best of their great ancestors – caring about their world and the people in it, hopeful and realistic at the same time – the future seems more promising with young people such as these in it. I truly hope that the connections we made today will continue.

As the process began, the evening ended – simply, and with Alie. Now nearly 80, frail in body but strong in mind and spirit, she stood before me. She took my hands in hers, kissed my cheeks twice and once more, and said those words which will tie our two families together for all time: “You are always welcome in my home.”

Jan A. Fishman is a lawyer practising in Vancouver, where he lives with his wife and two children. He is an elected member of the CBA Provincial Council and currently sits on the CBA Resolutions and Bylaws Committee and the board of the Law Courts Inn. He served six years on the Camp Miriam Committee, is active in his synagogue and is a member of the Second Generation Group.

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