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Sinterklaas Costume

h 155 cm x w 50 cm
1940-1945

Flip Heil participated in Resistance activities related to the illegal Amsterdam newspaper Het Parool. He was married to a Jewish woman, Lien Barend. Because the Nazis tended not to bother couples in mixed-marriages, Lien was relatively safe.

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Flip Heil and his Jewish wife Vogelina (Lien) Barend (source: Joods Historisch Museum).
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Flip Heil tried to arrange a hiding place for his Jewish in-laws, but to no avail: they were still deported and murdered. He also worked closely in his Resistance activities with Miep Neeter, who managed to conceal her Jewish identity for the entire war.

Dressed up as St. Nicholas, Flip secretly trafficked documents, also to people in hiding. He concealed these papers in secret compartments in St. Nicholas’ robe and mitre (headdress). The costume was used as a cover for his courier work a number of weeks per year, because ‘Sinterklaas’ – to the delight of children – arrived in the Netherlands  earlier than the Dutch holiday, celebrated on 5 December.