
Yad Vashem Artifacts Collection
Courtesy of Adrian Van As, Cherrybrook, Australia


Yad Vashem Artifacts Collection
Courtesy of Adrian Van As, Cherrybrook, Australia


Yad Vashem Artifacts Collection
Courtesy of Adrian Van As, Cherrybrook, Australia



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Yad Vashem Artifacts Collection
Courtesy of Adrian Van As, Cherrybrook, Australia
Yad Vashem Artifacts Collection
Courtesy of Adrian Van As, Cherrybrook, Australia
Yad Vashem Artifacts Collection
Courtesy of Adrian Van As, Cherrybrook, Australia
Between September 1942 and the end of the war, Adrian Van As was head of the Westerbork camp’s provisions office in Drenthe and acted under orders from the Dutch underground. Some 30 Jewish workers assisted him and benefited from his protection. He and his wife Bertha also helped to smuggle prisoners out of the camp and to pass on messages to the underground in Assen, the region's capital. In the final days before liberation he liaised with the Canadian troops and warned them that attacking the camp would harm the Jewish prisoners there. On 11 April, the Nazi Commander Gaemeker handed his pistol over to the highest-ranking Jew in the camp, Schlesinger, who gave the pistol to Van As as a sign that the inmates now regarded Van As as head of the camp. The next day, Canadian forces liberated the camp. Van As recalls:
"… a group of Jews came to me and said "Mr. Van As we need you here!" They had a Dutch flag and an orange flag. They called me outside and they wanted everyone to hoist the flag. I hoisted the flag and sang the national anthem… and then they put a sash around me, an orange sash. Later, they painted on the date of the liberation."
In 1991, Adrianus and Bertha Van As were recognized as Righteous Among the Nations.
Yad Vashem Artifacts Collection
Courtesy of Adrian Van As, Cherrybrook, Australia
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