Sophie van Doorn (Mies)
Sophie (Fie) van Doorn was born on a farm in Wilnis. In a reformed girls' magazine she read an advertisement by Mr. Nooter from Amstelveen, who was temporarily looking for a domestic help for his sick wife. Fie came to Nieuwer-Amstel and lived with the Nooter family, first on De Surmontstraat and later on Van der Veerelaan. Eventually, Fie would stay with the family for 16 years.
Meter reader Arie Blokland came to the Nooter family home and asked her if she didn't want to do something in the resistance. Under the pseudonym 'Mies' she became a courier for the resistance and the Nooter family housed people in hiding - often Jews. From her Christian beliefs, helping was very common. “I like helping people,” she explained in 1995. “You rolled from one thing into another.” There was no organization. In her area, the resistance people were all believers of St. Paul's Church, who took on tasks.
Arie Blokland regularly brought in people in hiding, sometimes as many as six or seven at a time. Later alderman Ben Goudsmit also went into hiding with the Nooter family for a while. It always went well, even though there were sometimes precarious situations. Once, for example, Fie was frying fish while the hiders stood in line with their plates. A policeman approached the light kier and stood in the kitchen. The officer understood the situation and warned them to be more careful. The neighbor also warned once when some - clearly identifiable as Jewish - hiders were sitting outside the window.
Caring for so many people in hiding was not easy. Fie regularly went by bicycle to get food, either in Wieringerwerf (an eight-hour trip) or from her parents in Wilnis.
Fie regularly got an errand to do something or was asked to bring people in hiding from one place to another during raids. She often brought people in hiding to farmer De Groot on Amstelveenseweg, where there were continuously more than ten people in hiding, or to sexton Sijtsema of Paulus Church. “You always let them walk a long way behind you, in view of the possibility of being caught.” The sexton's house housed people in hiding. From this house you could get into the basement of St. Paul's Church through a hatch. Under the pulpit the cellar was deepest and here a hiding place was set up, where people in hiding could sit in case of emergency.
At the Nooter family home, Fie regularly put a “contaminated area” card in front of the window. The Germans were afraid of contagious diseases and would skip the house during raids. Such a sign with the text scarlet fever also helped against the requisition of blankets by the Germans at the end of the war. By the way, people whose blankets had been requisitioned regularly took them off the cart again when the Germans were in the next house. The driver turned a blind eye. “We laughed our heads off,” Fie said of this.
She found the pick up of Mrs. Riek Blokland-Pater on February 4, 1944 very difficult. The Germans came to Arie and Riek Blokland's house on Heemraadschapslaan to pick up Arie. He was not at home and the Germans would return in half an hour. Fie went to fetch her, but Riek Blokland did not want to go with her. Later she was taken by the Germans and did not return. They didn't find the absconders in their house.
With the liberation, a lot fell off her. “At first I couldn't grasp it, suddenly the hiders ran into the street and shouted, “Free ... free ... free.” It took a day for it to sink in properly with me, the word FREE.” After the liberation, she noticed that the bond with those she had worked closely with during the war was diluted, it was no longer needed. A relationship grew with the Jewish people in hiding, which survived the war.
Bronnen: Oorlog, verzet, bevrijding, De Pauluskerk in de jaren ‘40/’45, blz. 16-21; interview Sophie van Doorn voor het boek Jaren van Verduistering.