THE OLD CHURCH TOWER, Zoetermeer, Holland /
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We shape our buildings, thereafter they shape us.
Winston Churchill (1874 – 1965)
At
the meeting point of Zoetermeer and Zegwaart the Old Church has held a
central position in the community for generations. With evidence of a
religious building on the same site dating as far back as 1295, the Old
Church can be seen as the place that physically and socially joined the
twin villages of Zegwaart and Zoetermeer long before the official
merging of the towns in 1935.
Initially built as a Catholic place
of worship, uniting the Sweet Lake fisherman from the twin villages
into a single parish, the church was claimed as protestant in 1574
following the liberation of Leiden and the subsequent reformation of the
Dutch church.
Following serious damage during a storm the top
half of the tower was completely renovated in 1642, however, the
remainder of the church building was allowed to fall into a state of
significant disrepair - only being rebuilt in the Protestant style,
separate from the tower, in 1787 (finally being joined in the 1960s).
For the Queridos, a Jewish family from Amsterdam, this unusual architectural quirk in Zoetermeer became their saving grace.
Having
fled Amsterdam in 1943, following a remarkable escape from Nazi
internment, the young Jewish family found temporary solace in Bleiswijk.
After a second dramatic escape, seeing Mother Querido rescued from the
fascists by the local resistance, the family fled to Zoetermeer to be
taken in by the custodians of the church, Pieter Wieriks and his wife
Sjaan.
While baby Umpie was simply taken into the family as
their newest arrival, her parents were forced to be more inventive. For
her father, Joseph, it was decided that the best option was for him to
take up the persona of a gravedigger, allowing him to hide in plain
sight. However, the idea of having a woman digging graves in the
village would almost certainly have attracted unwanted attention,
leaving the mother of Umpie in the position of having to find a more secure
hiding place.
Though accessed from the tower the rafters behind
the domed stucco church ceiling provided her with the ideal sanctuary.
There she saw out the war safely, hidden out of sight, never being
discovered thanks to the separation of church and tower. Her survival is
all the more remarkable as the German forces were literally on her
doorstep throughout - utilising the Church tower as a strategic lookout
throughout the war.
Made in collaboration with producer Andy Brydon from Curated Place, for the Stadsmuseum Zoetermeer.
