Two Sarnia residents whose grandparents protected a young Jewish boy during the Second World War, will be presented with one of Israel’s most prestigious honours.
Dutch couple Jan and Elsje Snippe will posthumously receive the ‘Righteous Among the Nations’ award for their role in sheltering Samuel de Paaux.
Margaret Dejong and Jan Snippe of Sarnia, two of the couple's grandchildren, will accept the award this week in Toronto.
"It's actually quite incredible," said Dejong. "Sammy was an integral part of their family -- they dyed his hair blonde so he could attend church with them, they made him feel very, very loved. To me, this is a huge honour, because they could have been killed for having this child in their home.... but that didn't matter to them. It was more important to protect him than anything else."
In May of 1944, the couple received a request from the Dutch resistance ‘NV-Group’ to shelter Samuel.
Dejong said her grandparents knew that if the S.S. [Schutzstaffel] or any of the Germans came and found him, they'd all be shot on site.
"When the Germans were going through the town, my dad, [Jan], would be hiding in the woods with Sammy -- my dad protected him," said Dejong. "[My grandparents] knew what the cost was, they knew what this was about. After this was all done, the Israeli State offered them compensation for having taken care of Sammy, three [separate] times, and three times my grandmother said 'no, I did this for the love of my God.'"
Dejong said her grandparents also had seven kids of their own, three of whom died of tuberculosis during the war, before taking in Samuel.
"He was a sweet kid, very confused by everything that was going on around him. And then we found out after the fact that two of his brothers were hiding within blocks of him during the entire war."
The ‘Righteous Among the Nations’ designation is granted to non-Jews who assisted or sheltered Jews during the Holocaust.
The Consulate General of Israel in Toronto and Western Canada, in conjunction with the Canadian Society for Yad Vashem, will pay tribute to the Snippe's with a private ceremony -- Lieutenant Governor of Ontario Elizabeth Dowdeswell will be in attendance. Margaret and her brother Jan will be presented with both a medal and certificate of honour.
"I really look forward to this because they're being honoured," said Dejong. "And because Sammy's son is going to be here and he's going to the event with me -- that means an awful lot to the whole family because it has gone full circle then."
Dejong said Samuel went and lived with Margaret's grandmother's sister after the war, and then moved back to Israel when he was 18.
Dejong said her parents immigrated to Montreal in July 1957 -- she was born in December of that year. She said her family later moved to Sarnia, where her dad would start the welding program at Lambton College.
