Hans Reens papers

Hans Reens (born Hartog-Gabriel Reens) was the only son of Jozef Reens and Suzanne Gokkes Reens. He was born on February 17, 1940 in Amsterdam, Holland where his family owned a gas station and a bicycle store. In May 1943, Hans' parents decided to place him in hiding with the van Vlijmen family, who lived in Hilversum. The following month Jozef and Suzanne Reens were arrested and sent to the Westerbork transit camp and from there directly to the Sobibor death camp, where they were killed on arrival. In the late summer of 1944, the family van Vlijmen took Hans on vacation to nearby Eerbeek. While they were there, in August 1944, the Dutch underground conducted an armed attack on a prison in nearby Arnhem freeing all of the prisoners. In retaliation, the Germans conducted mass arrests. During this Aktion, someone denounced the van Vlijmen family for keeping a Jewish child. Four and a half year old Hans was taken away to Westerbork. Since the Germans were not sure of his identity, he was included in the group of so-called "Unknown Children." On September 13, 1944, this group of about 51 "Unknown Children" was sent to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and from there to a children's home in the Theresienstadt concentration camp. In May 1945, after the liberation, Hans was brought back to Eindhoven and the van Vlijmen family located him and took him back in. Franciscus and Henderika van Vlijmen realized that they were unable to provide Hans with an adequate Jewish education, and they agreed that he should be adopted by his maternal uncle, Zadok Gokkes and his wife Judith Glasbeak. Hans always stayed in close contact with the van Vlijmen family. Hans Reens immigrated to Israel in 1961, and on September 28, 1980, Franciscus and Henderica van Vlijmen were recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among Nations. The papers contain 13 photographs depicting Hans Reens as a child in hiding with the van Vlijmen family in Hilversum, Netherlands; three photographs depicting Franciscus and Henderica van Vlijmen at a ceremony honoring them as Righteous Among the Nations at Yad Vashem; a photographic postcard depicting the summerhouse in Eerbeck, Netherlands, where Hans was caught by the Germans in August 1944; a letter written by Josef and Susanna Reens in Westerbork transit camp to the van Vlijmen family in which they refer to Hans in code as the "small dog"; a letter written on the letterhead of the Reens family business by Lena Gokkes, Hans's maternal grandmother to her daughter Susanna; 12 documents pertaining to legal issues relating to Hans after World War II; and three testimonies relating the deeds of the van Vlijmen family.