Date of birth:

September 22nd, 1890 (Wijngaarden, The Netherlands)

Date of death:

February 28th, 1945 (Ravensbrück, Duitsland)

Nationality:

Dutch

Leentje Nederlof moved from Wijngaarden to nearby Sliedrecht in 1926. There, her parents bought the house at number 32 Stationsweg. After her parents died, the unmarried Leentje stayed behind in the house and then decided to take in boarders.

In March 1941, the Jewish Van Gelderen family came to live with her. At that time, it was still legal and the family was registered at this address according to the rules. When anti-Jewish measures increased, the family decided to go into hiding in the Biesbosch. This goes wrong. Father Jacques is arrested and the family (father, mother and son) are deported via Westerbork to Auschwitz, where they are murdered immediately, and father Jacques after a few weeks.

Whether this prompted Leentje to take in Jewish people in hiding is not certain but seems plausible. How these people from Amsterdam, Rotterdam and other places ended up with her, and exactly how many there were, is not known. When things went wrong, there were at least 10 of them.

On 3 March 1943, it turns out that she was betrayed - allegedly by a local resident. The German police raided the house and, according to eyewitnesses, the people in hiding fled in all directions. Eight people in hiding were caught and two escaped. They too were later arrested and all die in the camps.

Leentje was also arrested. According to the surviving registration card, she was locked up in the Noordsingel prison in Rotterdam on 6 March 1943. On 9 June, she and 33 other women were transported from Rotterdam to the newly opened women's camp in Camp Vught. Given the low camp numbers issued to this group, she must have been one of the first female prisoners there. Nothing else is known about her stay in Vught.

On 6 September, because of the approaching Allies, Camp Vught is evacuated at all costs. Leentje appears on the transport list to Ravensbrück and is given prisoner number 67004. Little or nothing is known about what happened to her there. She may have been gassed, but according to another witness she died of general exhaustion. Her official date of death is 28-2-1945.

The house has since been demolished, but on the site where it stood an information board recalls ‘the saddest house in Sliedrecht’ and Stolpersteine have been laid for her and the people in hiding who perished in the camps.

Leentje Nederlof has been included by the NIOD in the Honour Roll of Fallen 1940-1945.

Do you have more information about this person? Inform us!

• - Stumbling Stones for Leentje and the people in hiding.
  - The Saddest House in Sliedrecht.
  - List of Dutch Deceased Ravensbruck.
  - https://www.struikelstenensliedrecht.nl/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Scan-artikel-HVS-december-2019.pdf
  - Leentje Johanna Nederlof | Erelijst van Gevallenen 1940-1945