Five Brothers and a War

Leen and Kees— Onderduikers

As the first weekend approached, the matter of church arose. The van Pelts had been baptized into the Nederlandse Hervormde Kerk (Dutch Reformed Church), whereas JanKees and his family were members of the “ Gereformeerde Kerken in Nederland” (Reformed Churches in Holland). While to the uneducated, these two might seem similar, to their members at the time, they had notable differences and would not freely mix. Making matters all the more complex was the segmentation within the Hervormde Kerk. As was discussed in the “Religion in Holland” section, there were three groups within the Hervormde Kerk— the liberal “Ethicals”- the ones that believed in God, but not to the extent it was necessary to be too strict about it, the middle-of-the-road “Confessionals”– who were not too strict but also not too easy going either, and the conservative “Orthodox” group. The van Pelts were members of the “Orthodox” faction. They believed, for example, that the only hymns that should be sung in church were those that put music to the Psalms. In fact, in the event that the songleader would choose anything other than a Psalm, Marie would refuse to sing it. What is interesting is that the other branch of Protestantism in Holland, the Gereformeerde Kerk , were more conservative than the “Orthodox” twig of the Hervormde Kerk branch. The Aantjes were thus more conservative than the conservative van Pelts. Leen and Kees discussed the matter and concluded that there really was not that much difference in their beliefs, and to the extent that there was, it was not worth offending their hosts. So Sunday, they stayed out of trouble by keeping quiet and attending with JanKees. They never did let their parents in on their secret either. This Google Earth photo shows the Aantjes’ farmhouse at the intersection of the two arrows. This view is from the other roadway than the “B” road the farm was on as one heads west out of Ottoland. The farm is located at B 50-52 2975 BJ, Ottoland.

van Pelt

Five Brothers and a War

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