Willem Bogaard lived on his father Johannes’ farm. His sister Aagje, brother Antheunius, and niece Metje also lived there.
From 1942 the Calvinist family took in many Jews and other persecuted people, including children from the Jewish orphanage in Laren. For many children, the Bogaards’ farm was a stopover before they were taken to other hiding places. Once the number of people sheltered there exceeded 70, holes in the ground were dug to house them. It was difficult to provide food for so many people.
Dutch police officers and the German regular police searched the Bogaards’ farms on several occasions. During a raid on October 6, 1943, 34 Jews were arrested and deported. None of them survived. Willem Bogaard managed to rescue a group of Jewish children by hiding them in rushes by the canal behind the farmhouse.
Willem Bogaard was taken to Sachsenhausen concentration camp but survived his imprisonment.
During the war, the family helped more than 300 Jews. Willem Bogaard was honored posthumously as Righteous Among the Nations by the Israeli Holocaust memorial center Yad Vashem in 1974.
Willem (left) and Antheunius Bogaard with two Jewish girls, Nieuw-Vennep, around 1942. Source: Beeldbank WO2 – NIOD, 212479
Willem Bogaard (left) with people in hiding, Nieuw-Vennep, around 1942. Source: Beeldbank WO2 – NIOD, 96712
Jews being arrested on the Bogaards’ farm, as photographed by the German regular police, October 1943. Source: Beeldbank WO2 – NIOD, 212578
An old car used as a hiding place on the farm, as photographed by the German regular police, October 1943. Source: Beeldbank WO2 – NIOD, 212590
