The story in English
At the end of September, Jozef and Regina Meijer were picked up by bicycle by an eighteen year old young man, G.J. van Kooten. Regina cried as she sat on the back seat. They biked to Wolddijk 122 in Noorderhoogebrug, where the Van Kootens lived. For many months Jozef and Regina stayed in their attic, but they never quarrelled or fell out. Regina was clever at making clothing and she made the young Van Kooten a scarf and gloves. Thanks to these, he could skate the ‘tour along the eleven cities’, a traditional and challenging skating event in Friesland. However, the Meijers could not remain, because someone who collaborated with the Germans became the Van Kooten’s neighbour. During the same period Jozef and Regina heard that their son-in-law and his children had been taken prisoner. (Their son-in-law had remarried.) Later it became known that their son-in-law was killed in a concentration camp in Sobibor on July 23rd 1943. His wife and three children, the youngest not even able to walk, were murdered at Auschwitz on February 11th 1944. Jozef had a photograph of two of these children, and also one of his daughter Lotty, who had died.
These photographs still exist. Regina was so shocked by the news of the deportation that a doctor had to be summoned to calm her down. The situation having become too dangerous, the Meijers were brought to a brick factory near Zuidwolde. A milk van belonging to the dairy-factory at Bedum picked them up here. The Van Kooten son did not know where they were being transported to: such knowledge would have been too dangerous.In a Truck .........
The truck was being driven by Ko Govert Poel, and he was supposed to bring them to a farm on the Wolddijk. As it happened, people were visiting the farm, so the driver had to find another solution. He decided to go to Sergeant Major Ter Horst in the Stationstreet in Bedum. In the neighbouring house there were also two persons in hiding: Hielke van der Heide and Willem Homoet, the very men who had initially warned Jozef and Regina. (See menu for more information on Sergeant Major Ter Horst).
Their stay with the Sergeant Major was of short duration. Jozef and Regina continued on to the Wilhelminalaan (also in Bedum) from where Mr. and Mrs. Schuurman brought them to Ellerhuizen. Here they went into hiding with the Ottens family in a house that has since been replaced. Mr. Ottens managed the draw-bridge in Ellerhuizen.