I worked as a handicraft instructor at the De Werkplaats School. I belonged to a group of Joop Westerweel and Bouke Koning, and were asked by them to assist in the evacuation of the children of the Youth Aliyah House (“Beit Aliyat Hanoar“). I was also asked to look for hiding places for them.

On August 15, 1942, the evacuation of the house began, and within two consecutive evenings, the 49 tenants were transferred to various addresses nearby. We did not want to endanger them by long journeys. Shortly afterwards, hiding places were added in the port city of Ijmuiden.

Joop Westerweel suggested that each of the activists take on the concern for a particular area across the country and regularly visit the boys and girls in their hiding places, bring them money, food-stamps and more. At first, the activists had to take care of financing the living expenses of the group members themselves. This required at least 50 Florins per month per person. Later, financial affairs were transferred to a national organization.

I knew how to regularly obtain food-stamps, by presenting the required voucher. The greater the number of members who crossed the borders, the more coupons were available to us.In the first period, the handling of the provision of identity cards was by Jaap Lambeck and Lucie Visser. The latter took care of erasing the letter ‘J’ from the card, with the help of Walter Brandligt (who was later killed). In the certificates in which the picture was replaced, it was necessary to repaint the stamp.In October 1942, the first shock occurred – a group of 13 young people set out for Switzerland, but did not reach its goal. To this day it is not known how and where they were lost.In August 1943 I left Bilthoven, after a group of students from Utrecht fell into the trap and during the interrogation my name was mentioned, as a food card supplier.About six times I led people to the Belgian border, to village Budel. There they passed into the hands of Joop Westerweel or Max Windmueller. On my way back I used to spend the night at the home of the Van Heeckeren family, in the town of Eindhoven. This family set up their homeregularly available to those who needed shelter.In March 1944, news of the imprisonment of Joop and Bouke was received in Amsterdam.The wife of a distinguished farmer conveyed the bad news. I went out to Eindhoven, and with the help of one policeman I managed to snatch a conversation with Joop. It was already clear to Joop during an interrogation that the identity card he was carrying, which was in the name of a Belgian citizen, could cause him serious damage. It was the certificate of "La Lieber" ("The Rabbit"), which Joop often mentions in his letters from prison. "The Rabbit" killed a German man and they searched for him. All attempts to rescue Joop from the camp failed.Together with Lore Durlacher, I rescued friends from the Westerbork camp. When they came to arrest the friends in The Hague, at Tine Segbboer's house, after the conspiracy to release Joop was revealed – I was on my way to Westerbork. That's how I survived.At the end of 1944 The activity was almost completely disrupted. I continued to supply food-tickets, about 250 tickets a month. After the train traffic stopped, I devoted more of my time to general resistance. 

Jan Smith

Publication of "The Pioneering Underground in the Occupied Netherlands" pp. 119-120