My friend-- Dirk Van Assen--
he was an elder in our church.
He was an auditor of the income tax department.
He knew quite a few Jewish people-- businesspeople.
And one day, he approached me.
Because I was a traveling salesman, I had a pass on the train.
I can go wherever I want. He asked me if I was able...
to accompany a Jewish couple...
to his sister-in-law in Aagtdorn,
where they were going in hiding.
So I did that. I accompanied 'em there...
and drove them to his family.
And after that, he came back.
He approached me again, and he said,
"Well, I have a friend...
"who is an inspector of police force in Maastricht police office.
"The police office has a Jewish family--
"a widow with two teenage kids...
looking for a hiding place."
And he asked me if I could find a hiding place.
The name of the family was Freilich--
F-R-E-I-L-I-C-H.
The mother, she was a widow, and the daughter, Toni, and the son, Fritz.
And that made me more or less active...
in finding hiding places for them.
I found a hiding place for the mother and the daughter...
in a grocery store I knew--
also members of our church in Haelen,
about 30 kilometers from Maastricht.
And for Fritz, I had nothing.
His mother begged me to find something for him.
And I asked my mother, "Is it okay that Fritz comes...
for a couple of days at our place till I find a place for him?"
And my parents agreed to that.
So Fritz came to our place for three or four days.
And after that, my mom said, "He's such a nice fellow. Let him stay here.
He don't have to go away anymore."
And Fritz stayed at our place till the end of the war.
And through Fritz, I got more connections.
His cousin was in the hospital.
She was released from the hospital and needed a place.
I found other place for her.
He brought me in contact with his uncle and his wife.
And slowly on, like a snowball, more and more people approached me...
for finding a hiding place.
Our vision in our church--
that we have to help those people who are in need.
We always felt very sympathetic to the Jewish people...
for the simple reason, we studied the Old Testament.
So we know that they were people of the Covenant.
So in that reason there.