Aid to Dutch Families

Helping young Dutch men go into hiding from the Germans often was just the beginning.  There were still their families to think of.  How would they get enough to eat without food coupons?  In his 1945 report, Karst wrote:

“Distribution of Coupons to Families with Fathers in Hiding

At every period of distribution, the brigade of gendarmerie of Baarle-Nassau gave out distribution coupons to about 40 households where the father was hiding.  Those coupons were given to me by:

• The organization “FRITS”, section Breda, represented by Mr. COR V D HOOFT in Breda.

• JACQUES DE WEERT pseudonym of GEMERT, son of a doctor in Zundert, for the time being still sick: in the vicinity of Hamburg.

Those coupons were distributed by:

• W.A. BUTEYN, customs agent in Baarle-Nassau, presently tax collector in Goirle (border)

• H. NIESSEN, gendarme in Baarle-Nassau

• L. VERKAIK, gendarme in Riel, presently B.B.O., Utrecht”