During the Second World War, Beusink farm in Dale became a hiding place and staging post for people trying to stay out of German hands. The Reiring family sheltered around 25 French escapees and airmen, among others. Their daughter Anne Reiring guided groups along back roads to Aalten station, where members of the resistance organised the next stage of their journey.
A farm as a staging post
Anne Reiring was fifteen when the war began. Johannes Reiring and Gesina Schenk lived at Beusink farm in Dale with a household of eleven. During the occupation, the farm became a refuge for people in hiding, a Russian prisoner of war and French servicemen who had escaped from German captivity or ended up in the area after a flight.
Some of the Frenchmen had escaped from Stalag VI F near Bocholt. After the family first took in two soaked French prisoners of war, Beusink became involved in an escape route run by the resistance around Lichtenvoorde and Aalten.
Along back roads to the station
Anne was given the task of guiding groups of Frenchmen to Aalten station. She walked with them along narrow back roads as far as the Roman Catholic cemetery and from there towards the station. Sometimes there were two or three men, sometimes five at a time. Resistance workers on the train from Winterswijk then helped them continue their journey.
Anne later estimated that at least 23 Frenchmen had stayed at Beusink. A Russian prisoner of war named Iwan also lived there. When German soldiers were billeted on the farm towards the end of the war, the family pretended that he was a deaf-mute uncle called Herman. Iwan remained with the family for some time after liberation.
‘No more than our duty’
After the war, Johannes Reiring was asked about the help his family had provided. His answer was simple: helping people in such circumstances was, in his view, no more than their duty.
A few years after the war, Johannes Reiring and his wife received the Médaille de la Reconnaissance Française, a French decoration in recognition of their help. The medal was presented in Apeldoorn. In 2017 Anne placed the family’s wartime mementoes on loan with the National Museum of Hiding in Aalten.
Anne remembers
In 1995, Anne Klein Nijenhuis-Reiring was interviewed about her memories of Beusink during the war. Her testimony shows how an ordinary farm became part of a wider network of helpers, people in hiding and escapees.
Sources
- National Museum of Hiding, Anne Reiring
- Old Aalten, Beusink profile
- Interview with Anne Klein Nijenhuis-Reiring, 1995