Hendrika Gerritsen

Hendrika Jacoba "Kiky" Gerritsen-Heinsius (12 April 1921 – 27 December 1990) was recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations on 15 September 1989, and was also awarded the Verzetsherdenkingskruis (Resistance Memorial Cross) by the Dutch government.

[8][9][10][11] Residing alone in Amsterdam and employed at that city's famed department store, De Bijenkorf, during the opening years of World War II, Kiky Heinsius was intimately acquainted with the dangers faced by Jewish men, women and children.

[12] Despite the threat to her personal security, she then actively intervened on behalf of a third individual, Siegfried Goldsteen, a Jewish labor camp fugitive who had been befriended by her co-worker, Anna Maass.

Hiding him at her home in early 1943, according to Yad Vashem, Kiky Heinsius "stole ration cards from her employer to provide for him" before helping him locate and move to "a safer hideout."

She then also relocated, moving "to a larger apartment with a hiding place ... took in Judith Fransman, an acquaintance of Sieg’s," and persuaded another friend to help secure extra ration cards.

[13] Approached by members of the Amsterdam Resistance, she was soon making frequent trips "to Drenthe to pick up forged papers for people in hiding" while helping to transport others to more secure locations.

[21] The prisoners at Dachau and its subcamps were often at risk from Allied bombing, which targeted factories and railroads in and around Munich more than 70 times over a five-year period in order to destroy or at least disrupt and delay armament production.

Despite the danger, the prisoners at these facilities "were not permitted to seek shelter in bunkers", according to the Bavarian House of History; as a result, many "lived in constant fear of air raids.

Many women, malnourished and overworked, fell ill with typhoid fever, tuberculosis and other diseases, but fought to remain at Agfa as long as possible since being sent to the overcrowded hospital at Dachau would likely result in their deaths.

Nevertheless, even though their aid was crucial to the Jews' survival, in the absence of risk, they do not qualify for recognition within the framework of the Righteous program.Hendrika Gerritsen was also awarded the Verzetsherdenkingskruis (Resistance Memorial Cross) by the Dutch government.