Cycling route Death Valley De Peel - Anne Frank's dentist (#3)

Anne Frank's dentist

Samuel van der Hoeden was a Jewish Dutchman who went into hiding in Deurne during the German occupation. Samuel spent his youth in Utrecht, where he studied to become a dental master and also became a skilled painter.
He married there and in 1929 the van der Hoeden family moved to Amsterdam where Samuel earned a living as a traveler in dental supplies and (unlicensed) dentist. He treated, among others, the Frank family.

Samuel came into contact with the leader of an Amsterdam resistance group, Gerrit Jan van der Veen. Samuel proved to be skilled in making false identity papers and his practice at the dental institute was used to manufacture explosives that were used in the attack on the population register in Amsterdam on March 27, 1943.

After this it became too hot under Samuel's feet. He went into hiding in Deurne and, with the help of chaplain Johannes Donkers (alias Jan Rak) from the Willibrordus parish, ended up with the Heijst family on the Kulert in Zeilberg.
Samuel stayed there for the rest of the occupation as a farmhand, but could not forget his former work and helped many Zeilbergers get rid of their toothache.
After the liberation he returned to his family.

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Source

• Text: TracesOfWar
• Photos: Martin Damen