Date of birth:

October 13th, 1894 (Adorp, the Netherlands)

Date of death:

October 18th, 1968 (Laren, the Netherlands)

Nationality:

Dutch (1815-present, Kingdom)

Jan Reitsema was a teacher and director of the Berg-Stichting. A non-Jewish couple, he and his wife Tine were appointed director of the Berg-Stichting, a Jewish children's home in Laren (N.H.), in 1929.

In the summer of 1942, he was ordered by the Germans to vacate the buildings by 1 December. He then secretly rented some premises on the Rapenburg in Amsterdam and relocated with small groups of children and carers.

He also started calling the Berg-Stichting a Mischlingenheim, a home for children who were only half-Jewish. This bought him time to find hiding addresses.

On 2 August 1943, he was arrested by the SD on suspicion of helping a person in hiding. After his release, the remaining 48 orphans and four staff members were found to have been deported.

Through his efforts, more than half of the 110 children survived the war and received the Yad Vashem award in 1964 for this.

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• Photo: - Plantsoen in Laren vernoemd naar Groningse verzetsstrijder - Dagblad van het Noorden
  
• - INEKE HILHORST & TEUN KOETSIER, De Slag om de Berg-Stichting, Wijland, 2017.
  http://www.joodsamsterdam.nl/rapenburg-92-96-bergstichting/ http://www.larensbehoud.nl/laren-in-het-nieuws/hoe-jan-reitsema-met-bluf-en-list-het-leven-van-joodse-kinderen-redde-29881.html

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