© Anne Frank Stichting
The greengrocer arrested
This photo shows Hendrik van Hoeve being arrested and taken away by the Nazis. The photo was taken during filming in 1958.
Hendrik van Hoeve is the reliable greengrocer who supplies potatoes for the people in hiding in the secret annex. He quietly delivers them to Miep Gies at the office. He suspects that they are for someone in hiding, but he doesn’t know anything else.
A heavy blow
Van Hoeve also has people hiding in his home and when this is discovered he is arrested and deported by the Nazis on 25 May 1944. He is sent to concentration camp Neuengamme in the north of Germany.
When Anne Frank hears of this, she writes about it in her diary. She incorrectly spells his name as ‘van Hoeven’.
‘There’s something happening every day. This morning Mr van Hoeven was arrested. He was hiding two Jews in his house. It’s a heavy blow for us, not only because those Jews are once again balancing on the edge of an abyss, but also because it’s terrible for Mr van Hoeven. The world’s been turned upside down. The most decent people are being sent to concentration camps, prisons and lonely cells, while the lowest of the low rule over young and old, rich and poor.’
Van Hoeve returns
After Van Hoeve’s arrest his wife runs the shop on her own. She barely recognizes her husband when he returns after the liberation. He has been marked by camp life and is suffering from hunger oedema.
Re-enacted
Van Hoeve’s arrest can be seen in George Steven’s 1959 film "The Diary of Anne Frank". In this film Van Hoeve plays himself, but the location of the shop is different: the Staalstraat not the Leliegracht.
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Prinsengracht 263
On 1 December 1940, Otto Frank moves his business from the Singel to a larger building on the Prinsengracht at number 263 near the Westerkerk (church). From 6 July 1942 to 4 August 1944 the Frank family and four others hide in the secret annex behind this building.
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