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Additional photos of the People and Events from the Farm During the War

The following photos and descriptions provide more detail of the locations and situations the family and the young Jewish men faced during the war years.

Willem Geurink Family taken just after their liberation on March 31, 1945.

Willem and Dina Geurink Family with rescued boys

Seated in the middle are Willem and Dina (Wisselink) Geurink with four of their children. Their oldest son is sitting on the arm of Alex Sidorov, at the very left side. Standing are two Berger sons and their future sister-in-law Co Edenburg, and at the very right side the young farmer's servant Klaas (in Canada called Clarence) Schuurman beside the farm dog Prins.

This is a picture of the destruction (by the war!!) on the roof of the farm of Willerm and Dina Geurink. Half of the roof was open and the glass in most of the windows was broken.

Roof destroyed by bombs

In the weeks after the fallen bombs on March 12, 1945, the roof of the front (and living) part of the farm was replaced by unbroken red tiles from the back part of the farm, like the men were doing here. They are working around the attic window from which the hiding people looked out. During the time the front roof was open the Levy boys had to stay all day and night in their underground cellar.

Boys repair roof

In the evening of the March 12, 1945, at 10.30 o'clock, just before my parents went to bed, an aeroplane dropped two bombs in the dark on the corn field just behind the wagon barn of the farm of Willem and Dina Geurink. It killed their only horse, lifted the pigsty roof about a centimeter, destroyed one of the back doors of the farm, cracked some farm and barn walls, and it broke almost all the window glass and a lot of their red baked roof tiles.

Wagon barn damage from bomb

Here a picture of the destruction of the wagon barn, who was the nearest buiilding to the bombs.

This is a picture, made in the autumn of winter 1944. It shows the attic floor in the front and living apart of the farm, where one boy was the look-out (through the attic window and between the tiles at the other side) so the others could do their work, like shown here drying and cutting self-raised tobacco leaves.

Boys in the attic with tobbaco leaves

From left to the right: Alex Sidorov, Helmut Levy, Leon Levy nand Jonny Levy. They were not allowed to make any noise so they anly walked there on socks or slippers.

This picture was taken just after the final liberation on March 31, 1945. It shows the three Levy boys in the pigsty.

Levy boys in the pigsty

From left to the right are Jonny, Helmut and Leon Levy. Jonny is sitting in the straw on the pigsty floor and holding the secret wooden trap door to the entrance of their underground cellar which was hidden by straw. Helmut and Leon Levy are both standing in the opening of the entrance to their underground cellar.

This is a picture of the Russian under-diver Alex Sidorov, standing in the former hidden entrance of the hiding-place no. 3 in the wagon barn. this picture was made just after the final liberation of that area on March 31, 1945.

Alex Sidorov

Here a liberation picture, made just after their final liberation on March 31, 1945, shows five happy "under divers" on the farm of Willem and Dina Geurink. The boys are standing in front of the barn doors of the farm.

The Under Divers

From the left to the right: Helmut Levy, Alex Sidorov, Jonny Levy, Leon Levy and Bas Berger.

This picture of mother Dina (Wisselink) Geurink and her four oldest children is made in the autumn of 1944, on a Geurink potato field. Picking potatoes they also often looked at the sky what the fighting planes and bombers were doing there and if these planes were dangereous for them.

Dina with children in the field

Here a picture I made in the spring of 1997 from the depth of the underground cellar wehere the Levy boys were hidden. It is lit from above by my standing father, Willem Geurink. It was very dark and small there, even staying there for one hour or one night!

Willem Geurink holding light to underground cellar

This picture was taken in the spring of 1997. The entrance of the underground cellar at the very end of the pigsty was re-opened and my father, Willem Geurink, is showing it to his brother Gerrit Geurink (at the left side with a stick). Posthumeously, uncle Gerrit Geurnk was also honored with the Yad Vashem Award. You see the small opening of that underground cellar with its wooden trapdoor standing besides it against the outside wall.

Willem shows cellar to Gerritt

This is a piucture I made in the 1990's of the former and now empty pigsty. At the very end of it, at the right side, there was a sty for pigs which, during wartime, also hid the entrance to the hidden cellar under its' straw. This entrance was reopend in the spring of 1997, to show that history to the visitors and relatives of the last Geurink family reunion on that farm in August 1997.

Pigsty in the 1990's

This shows the attic in the front (living) part of the farm of my parents, like it was made in the 1990's. You see the light through the small attic window, by which the permament watch kept an eye on the surrounding sand roads during WW II.

Attic view

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