A special ceremony took place on June 19 in the town hall of Wassenaar. Geesbert van Barneveld has been posthumously honored with the Yad Vashem award 'Righteous among the Nations'.
Yad Vashem in Jerusalem is the institution in memory of the six million Jewish victims of the Shoah (Holocaust) and of the thousands of thriving Jewish communities destroyed by the Nazis in the period 1939-1945. The institute is also a center of research into both the causes and consequences of the persecution of Jews during the German domination of large parts of Europe before and during the Second World War. The Yad Vashem Institute is an Israeli institution that was founded in 1953 by the Knesset (the Israeli Parliament). The aim of the Institute is to commemorate the six million Jews who were killed by the Nazis and their accomplices during the Second World War and to honor those who - themselves not Jewish - have made a special contribution to their rescue. of Jews.
Geesbert van Barneveld has been recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations for saving Jews during the Holocaust. The recognition was presented to Geesbert's daughter by Israeli Ambassador Modi Ephraim during a ceremony in the Wassenaar town hall.
Van Barneveld held various positions within the municipality of Wassenaar from 1931 and became municipal collector in 1937. At a time when many high German officials and NSB leaders lived in Wassenaar, he used his position to help countless people, including many Jews.
Van Barneveld provided them with hiding places, false IDs, food vouchers and financial support. Despite the risk to himself and his family, he helped relentlessly, often without his wife's knowledge. His actions did not go unnoticed; he was reprimanded several times by the pro-NSB mayor, Daniel de Blocq van Scheltema.
In April 1944, Van Barneveld was arrested while accompanying a Jewish girl, Elly Rita van Esso, to a hiding place. After captivity in Amstelveen he was deported to Vught concentration camp, and later to Sachsenhausen and Neuengamme. The municipality of Wassenaar dishonorably dismissed him because of the accusation that he had helped Jews to go into hiding. Van Barneveld died on November 11, 1944 of exhaustion and dysentery in Ladelund and was buried in a mass grave.
After his arrest, Van Barneveld's family was taken to a safe hiding place by the resistance. After the war his name was cleared. A memorial plaque at his former office commemorates the heroic deeds of Geesbert van Barneveld and a park in Wassenaar was recently named after him. His name has now also been added to the list of Righteous Among the Nations in Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.