03/09/2025
On January 5, 1984, two people arrived in Israel from the Netherlands to receive official recognition as Righteous among the Nations (or Righteous Gentiles). A Righteous Gentile is a non-Jewish person who saved a Jewish person during the Holocaust. The two people from Holland were Aag (female) and Niek (male) Schouten; two people whom they saved were my mother, Ilse Rothschild, and my father, Max Rothschild. There were others.
The governmental organization, Yad Vashem, which conferred the medal and certificate to the Schoutens, also planted a tree in their honor and added their name to the list of Righteous among the Nation etched into memorial stones.
After the outdoor ceremonies, my parents with our extended family, plus Niek and Aag, entered a special hall where Niek was invited to speak. On the dais were members of a second Dutch family who also were being honored. The people being recognized did not know Hebrew, and only some of the audience knew Dutch, but a great deal was communicated, nevertheless.
Since then, Yad Vashem's research department has published two large volumes of Dutch rescuers, listed alphabetically in the Encyclopedia of the Righteous among the Nations: Rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust. The Schoutens are included in the book along with a description of their courageous activities. Those rescuers who have not been nominated or could not be documented are not mentioned, suggesting that there were many more rescuers than those listed.
For years, Niek and Aag refused Yad Vashem's request to honor them, saying, `What we did was not special. If we considered it to be special, then we would be saying that we don't expect everyone to do it.' Many other Dutch people who hid Jews similarly did not want to talk about their actions or to be honored for what they did. After stubbornly resisting, however, the Schoutens finally conceded when my parents explained that they should allow the next generation to learn from their deeds. So, nearly 40 years after my parents' liberation from hiding, the Schoutens planted two trees on the grounds of Yad Vashem.
Here is a component of Niek's speech, which explains how he began hiding Jews:
`It was the end of 1942 when I saw how a group of Jews was assembled in South Rotterdam ready for deportation. As an individual, one was powerless to oppose such an act of violence. What the individual or family could do, however, was to help Jewish individuals go into hiding, so that they, at least might be spared such a fate. This is purely and simply the basis on which we, Aag, Bubi (Niek's mother), Helga (their toddler daughter) and I lived with you at 36 Pioenstraat.'
`Niek's phrase, 'when we lived with you," rather than "when you lived with us" deserves comment. First, Niek used the word `lived' not `hid,' probably because he did not relate to my parents only as Jews or as people in need of assistance; and second `lived with you' creates a sense of equality even if the apartment belonged to the Schoutens. This little reversal of the expectable indicates sweetly that Niek and Aag never wanted my parents to feel indebted to them.'
Niek Schouten is standing at the lectern in the photograph.
Niek Schouten standing when accepting his certificate of being a Righteous gentile, from Yad Vashem in Jerusalem
~Shulamit Reinharz, March 2025.
About Shulamit Reinharz: Shulamit Reinharz, Ph.D., a distinguished teacher and scholar, is Jacob Potofsky Professor of Sociology, Emerita, at Brandeis University, where she founded and directed the Women’s Studies Research Center and the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute. Author of 17 books and dozens of articles on gender, research methods, Jewish history, and the Holocaust, her latest work, Hiding in Holland: A Resistance Memoir, co-authored with her father, Max Rothschild, offers an integrated two-person, inter-generational study of suffering, resisting and surviving during the Holocaust.
Holocaust Educators of America
