Survival

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After being hidden for several days in the coal bin, a group of students from an underground network were able to pick Philip up and move him through several other safe locations before taking him to his final destination in Utrecht, a city about thirty miles from Amsterdam. Most of the individuals in the network who transported children were students who attended Utrecht University, the largest university in the Netherlands at that time. The students posed as parents inconspicuously walking or riding bikes with their children, in order to safely move them to their next hidden location. Philip’s destination was an orphanage named “Kindjes Haven.” It was founded by two heroic women who took care of the children of unwed Dutch women impregnated by German Soldiers. The Kindjes Haven was able to mix in Jewish children among the non-Jewish children under the watchful eye of the two women. Philip spent a number of weeks in the orphanage, but the first two weeks were the most difficult for the two and a half year-old Flipje. His stay in the coal bin and the movement to several other locations had taken a toll on the young boy.