This violin belonged to Hana (Neti) De Leo. A native of Holland, but spent most of her life in Israel. This violin accompanied her through the troubles of World War II and later immigrated with her to Israel. She lived to 101, all her years passionate about music.
Hana was born in Arnhem, Holland, to Yehuda and Johana who raised nine children in a Zionist atmosphere. As a teenager she joined an orthodox youth movement, where she met Naftali, Harry Asher, who soon became her friend and later her fiancé.
In 1939, when winds of war were already troubling Europe, Hana travelled for the first time to Palestine to visit her sister Kora, while Naftali stayed in Amsterdam because of a medical issue. Just one year later, when the couple was ready to immigrate together, it was too late! The German army invaded Holland. Hana and Naftali were trapped.
They were married in Amsterdam in 1941 with just a few family members present. It didn’t take long before Hana's parents were evacuated from Arnhem and joined Hana in Amsterdam. Around that time, both Hana and Naftali started working in Loosdrecht, about one hour south of Amsterdam. Hana took care of young Jewish kids, while Naftali found them positions with Dutch farmers in order to prepare them for farm work in Palestine.
In 1942, the Nazis were closing in on the kids. Two instructors who worked there got in touch with Yoop Westerville, the headmaster of a nearby Christian school for help.
This was the beginning of what developed in time to become the famous underground group of Yoop Westerville. Yoop's wife as well as other Christians and Jews took an active stand in saving lives while risking their own.
In August of 1942, the Nazis were about to round up the kids to send them to the camps. Yoop's underground group placed many kids with farmers who volunteered to hide them. Yet, some of the hiding farms were discovered by the Nazis and it was Naftali's job to move the kids between this farm and that trying to avoid police and German soldiers.
Yoop was arrested in March 1944 while smuggling a group of youth to Spain through the mountains. He behaved bravely, and was tortured and killed in August 1944. Years later, he was honored as Righteous Among Nations by Yad VaShem in Jerusalem.
Hana returned to Amsterdam in August 1942, one month before her parents and four young siblings—Yaakov, Aaron, Hayim and Elisheva were deported to a concentration camp. They never came back.
Hana and Naftali were on the run under false papers identifying them as Christians, changing hiding places and names, until Hana got pregnant. She then found safety in a convent, hiding her true identity from all but the head priest and one nun.
She gave birth to a baby girl on September 6, 1943, naming her Tinka Vermoilen for security reasons.
After seven months, Hana needed to find a new shelter. She left little Tinka in the village of Goingarijp with the family Kirpnstein, which kept homeless children way before the war, and so could hide Jewish children. Hana, on the other hand, had to keep changing hiding places, sometimes sleeping in pigsties. Towards the end of the war, she had no choice but to return to the Kirpsteins who hid her in a specially built closet in their attic.
What about Naftali? He spent the war years with the underground forces, helping children and moving them between various hiding places.
Holland was liberated on April 15, 1945. Hana and Nafteli were reunited with Tinka, whose Hebrew name was Nehama. Most of their relatives and friends were killed in the war. They stayed in Holland one more year looking for survivors and caring for orphans, among them two of Naftali’s nieces.
They left Europe for Palestine in April 1946 together with their daughter and newly born son, Uri, and some orphan children. And Hana’s cherished violin. They lived in kibbutz Yavne and had three more children—Ezra, Elyakim and Shoshi.
Music was always present in their home, but Hana’s violin lay in a forgotten corner.
Nowadays, it is restoring its sound and telling their story of courage and compassion, troubles and wondrous survival.
