‘It’s part of our life’: Families bonded by Holocaust, reunited in Las Vegas

Their families were united by fate in World War II when one couple helped hide another from the Nazis and their Dutch collaborators.

From 1943 until the eve of the war’s end in 1945, Jan Kieft and his wife Mar Kieft-Meijns gave refuge to Joseph Italiaander and his wife, Rebecca Italiaander-Pront, who were Jewish, in their house in Grootschermer, a village about 25 miles north of Amsterdam.

The amazing story has two parts.

The first was the bond forged between two couples during the war as the Kiefts helped the Italiaanders evade the Holocaust.

The second is the fact the two families still share a strong relationship to this day.

That eight-decade bond was bolstered again in late April and early May when 17 descendants of the Kiefts, who all live in the Netherlands, visited the Italiaanders’ daughters: Ann-Marja Lander, 76, and Mary Alida Evans, 73, who live in Las Vegas.

The reunion was part of the Dutch family’s “bucket list” trip to the southwestern United States, Lander said. In addition to seeing Lander and Evans in Las Vegas, they also visited Los Angeles, San Francisco and the Grand Canyon.

On Wednesday, the Kieft descendants, who range in age from 7 to 76, gathered in Lander’s Summerlin backyard before they all flew back to Amsterdam on Thursday.

“It’s history, it’s part of our life,” said Pieter de Reus, 52, Jan and Mar’s great-grandson who still lives in Grootschermer.

‘Stay inside the house’

By 1943, in the Netherlands and across Europe, the Nazi extermination machine operated with ruthless efficiency. But the Italiaanders were able to exploit a chaotic moment to escape certain death.

In Amsterdam, Jews were held in a theater before being moved to Westerbork, a so-called transit camp, in the northeastern Netherlands. From Westerbork, the Jewish captives would then be sent to extermination camps such as Auschwitz.

But amid all the hubbub as the Jews were being rounded up to be sent to Westerbork, nobody saw when the Italiaanders crawled across a plank from one of the theater’s windows into the window of a neighboring building. This was achieved with the help of a non-Jewish relative who was married to one of Rebecca’s cousins.

The Italiaanders went into hiding and would end up at the Kiefts’ home, initially not divulging to the Kiefts that they were Jewish. After about six months, when circumstances forced the Italiaanders to tell the Kiefts they were Jewish, they had to leave because the Kiefts didn’t want to be killed themselves. After a week of being unable to find another hiding spot, the Italiaanders returned to the Kieft’s house.

That’s when the Kiefts decided to risk everything, something Ann-Marja Lander described as “pretty amazing.” Jan Kieft told them they could stay if they remained inside the house at all times, Lander said. This was August 1943. The Italiaanders hid there until March 1945.

‘Like family’

The risk was very real. A Nazi collaborator lived a couple doors down. Mar helped Rebecca dye her dark hair red to look “less Jewish,” Lander and Evans said.

In March 1945, Jan Kieft and his son were outside working in the field when they saw a patrol of Nazi collaborators. In the panic, they fled on their motorcycles, leaving tracks in the snow to the house.

The patrol followed the trail. Joseph and Mar were captured and jailed for about three weeks in nearby Alkmaar. Mar was released and Joseph was shipped to Westerbork. He would’ve been sent to Auschwitz, but Europe’s liberation was imminent as the Allies closed in. The Canadians bombed the rail line. The guards at Westerbork fled.

Joseph Italiaander found a bicycle without tires — only wheel rims — and rode it across the Netherlands, reuniting with Rebecca, who had been hiding out on a tiny island.

And the house of the Nazi collaborator two doors down from the Kiefts? That was given to the Italiaanders.

“Our parents were grateful, needless to say, of course, and maybe the proximity to them after the war helped cement the relationship,” Lander said.

In December 1953, the Italiaanders left Europe for the United States with their three children, settling in Southern California. Lander and Evans now live in Las Vegas, while their brother Ronald Lander remains in California. Joseph died in 2009 and Rebecca died in 2015.

After their arrival in America, the family sought to better assimilate in America by changing their surname from Italiaander to Lander, Ann-Marja Lander said.

Despite being on opposite sides of the Atlantic since then, the two families have remained close, staying in touch and visiting each other every few years.

Ann-Marja Lander said she wants the Kiefts to be bestowed with the honor of Righteous Among the Nations, a title given by Israel to non-Jews who risked their lives to help save Jews from being killed by the Nazis.

Carla de Reus-Kreb, 75, the granddaughter of the Kiefts, sat with her husband, Dirk de Reus, 76, with Lander and Evans at Lander’s dining room table Wednesday, helping to tell the story, adding details in Dutch, with Lander and Evans translating.

“We’re all like family,” Lander said.

Contact Brett Clarkson at bclarkson@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BrettClarkson_ on Twitter.