Dela Gesina Wikkerink-Epping and her husband Jan Wikkerink helped persecuted Jews to go into hiding in Aalten (Netherlands) and the surrounding area. In September 1943 they rescued a newborn baby. Lena Kropveld-Jedwab gave birth in hiding on a farm. To give the impression the child had been abandoned, they made a plan. A medical student who had secretly helped with the birth placed the baby in a box outside their front door during the night. Jan Wikkerink told all the neighbors about the alleged foundling, whom they called Willem. A public health officer testified in a “racial biological” assessment required for all foundlings that he was of “Aryan” origins.
Dela Wikkerink occasionally visited the parents with young Willem and walked him past the house where they were hiding. Her excuse was that she was obtaining fresh vegetables in the neighborhood. After Aalten was liberated in March 1945, the Wikkerinks returned Willem to his parents. They were honored as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem in 1978.