חיל סלומי – Giel (Chiel) Salome
Salomé, Michiel J. Michiel Salomé of Hardinxveld in South Holland, known as Chiel, spent several months in prison in 1941 for extending help to fugitives, but was later released for lack of evidence. He had no real contact with Jews until he became friendly with a neighbor and co-worker at the National Water Plant with whom he discussed the Jewish question at length.
After seeing the first mass deportations of July 1942, Chiel began to devote himself to Resistance work. Towards the end of 1942, he came into contact with the Westerweel* group through his mother, who knew some of Joop and Willy Westerweel’s colleagues in Rotterdam. Chiel, who was then living in the village of Ede, Gelderland, found hiding places for 12 young Zionists. He also used his contacts in Limburg to find shelter for other young haverim from the Palestine Pioneer movement, the Hehalutz, many of whom found hideouts in Grubbenvorst. While out on a mission escorting a Jewish woman to her hiding place, Chiel was arrested and interrogated by the Gestapo. He was incarcerated in the prison at the Amstelveenscheweg in Amsterdam for six weeks before returning to his former home. No longer feeling sufficiently safe, he moved to Boxtel, North Brabant, a small village where he had a better chance of going unnoticed by the authorities. After three months lying low, he returned to his resistance activiries.
During the war, Chiel Salomé was also involved in freeing prisoners from Nazi detention. In an attempt to free Letty Rudelsheim, a member of the religious Palestine Pioneers, the Bahad, from the Scheveningen prison, he was arrested along with Willy Westerweel and Letty at the . Rotterdam railway station in December 1943.. A Jewish double agent was suspected of having betrayed them.
From the Rotterdam prison, he was transferred to Vught, then to Dachau, from where he was . liberated at the end of the war, returning to the Netherlands in a POW contingent. After his arrest, Elly Waterman, one of the Jewish members of the Westerweel Group, filled Chiel's place.
On June 16, 1964, Yad Vashem recognized Michiel J. Salomé as Righteous Among the Nations.
קישורים לפעולתו של חיל סלומי במחתרת "קבוצת ווסטרוויל"
Links for Giel Salome activities on Westerweel Group
Giel Salome Collection of testimonies and documents at Ghetto Fighters House archive
Giel (Chiel) Salome as Righteous Among the Nations on Yad Vashem Jerosalem
