Never forget
Deepa Bharath
It happened 62 years ago, but Flory Van Beek will never forget it
until her very last memory is discarded.
Sitting at a table in the kitchen of her Newport Beach home, Van
Beek effortlessly rewinds her memories back to 1942 when Holland, her
homeland, was invaded and conquered by the Nazis under the
dictatorship of Adolf Hitler.
Van Beek and her husband, Felix, survived the Holocaust, thanks to
two Dutch families, the Brandsens and the Hornsvelds -- who opened
their homes to them, shared their meager food supply and protected
them from the wrath of the Nazis.
Last week marked a reunion of sorts in Newport Beach, more than
six decades later. As they sat around a dining table at the Van
Beeksâ Newport Beach home, the Van Beeks, Hank Hornsveld and Nico Van
Der Veer, grandson of Piet Brandsen, who protected the Van Beeks,
talked about those days they canât fathom having gotten through.
It all started in June 1942, when Flory Van Beek received her
summons from the Germans to head to a âcamp,â which in post-war days
gained notoriety as the âconcentration camp.â
Van Beek had gone grocery shopping that day. She had to because
Jews were allowed to shop only on certain days between 3 and 5 p.m.
On her way back home, she stood on the bank of the River Eem. Her
heart trembled under the star of David she wore on her blouse, the
star that marked her for eventual annihilation. She took one look at
the beautiful landscape and picturesque Amersfoort, the town by the
river where she had grown up. In that moment, the beauty she had
known all her life seemed cloaked in indescribable ugliness.
âWith the summons in my pocket and a heavy heart, I stood in front
of the river thinking about killing myself,â she said. âI felt
hopeless.â
That was when a tall man riding his bicycle by the river called
out to her.
âHe asked me, âWhat the hell are you doing here?ââ Van Beek said.
âHe told me to rip the star off my blouse and follow him.â
The man Van Beek followed without argument that day was Piet
Brandsen, a dynamic, daredevil Dutchman who opposed the Nazi regime
and worked underground to protect the oppressed. Brandsen took Van
Beek into his home and promised to protect her.
Flory and her boyfriend, Felix Van Beek, were married in
Brandsenâs house because the man was a staunch Catholic and didnât
want them living together under his roof unwed, she said.
Brandsen had the courage, the will and the resources to resist the
power of the Nazis. He published an underground newspaper called
Parool, which means âgive your wordâ in Dutch. He built bomb shelters
and secret passageways in his home.
That came in handy when the Van Beeks had to escape after Gestapo
officials arrested Brandsen in 1944 and sent him away to a
concentration camp.
This time, they sought the help of another family in town, the
Hornsvelds, who took in the Van Beeks. They lived there for three
months with the Hornsvelds and their two sons, one of whom was Hank.
Hank Hornsveld was a street-smart kid, all of 18 years old. But he
knew how to wheel and deal. He feared none, not even the Nazis with
guns and bad tempers. Hornsveld even managed to get fake papers,
which authorized him to do things he otherwise wouldnât have been
able to do.
âThe Nazis made a mistake,â he said. âThey made a friend of my
fatherâs, a guy we used to go fishing with, the leader of the town. I
got the papers from him and no one, even the Gestapo, could question
me about where I was going or what I was doing.â
Hornsveldâs heroism saved his family and the Van Beeks when the
Nazis launched an attack in Amersfoort. With the rest of the group
huddled in an air-raid shelter, the Hornsveld boys ran over to a
nearby lumberyard and returned with a circus wagon and an old horse.
It was in that wagon that they fled to safety to the home of Rika and
Henk Brandt, where they heard the news that the Nazis had been
defeated and the war was over. They had been liberated.
The Van Beeks moved to the United States in 1948. They sponsored
Hank and his brother, who also moved to Newport and got into the
construction business. In fact, the brothers built the home the Van
Beeks live in.
Itâs not a bond that severs over time, Flory Van Beek said.
âAfter all these years, itâs still hard to think about those
days,â she said. âOur whole life seems like a miracle.â
Hornsveld said he doesnât know how he did what he did.
âSometimes, I sit back and think about all this,â he said. âI
wonder how we survived. I guess, because we were young. We had the
will to survive.â
Nico Van Der Veer, who has heard stories about his grandfatherâs
heroism, said it was special to be able to meet with the Van Beeks
decades after the war with his wife Jacquelien and his 16-year-old
son Lex.
âGenerations have gone by,â Nico Van Der Veer said. âBut those
stories will never be forgotten. They should never be forgotten.â
Those stories have become chapters in Lexâs history books. He has
taken school tours of concentration camps in Amersfoort and in
Germany. But it all still seems unreal.
âItâs crazy,â the teenager said. âI canât believe it sometimes.â
Nico Van Der Veer says he admires his grandfather for his courage
to find hope where there was none.
âWhen you are faced with a situation, you find the guts to go
through it, and I guess thatâs what happened,â he said. âYou just do
it.â
The families on Friday participated in a service at Temple Isaiah
in Newport Beach. The Van Beeks sang a special song for the Van Der
Veers, Jacquelien Van Der Veer said.
âHavenu Shalom Alechem,â Flory Van Beek said. âIt means âMay Peace
be with You.ââ
âIt was perfect,â Jacquelien Van Der Veer said. âIt gave me goose
bumps.â
* DEEPA BHARATH covers public safety and courts. She may be
reached at (949) 574-4226 or at [email protected].
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