The Van Vloten - van den Bergh family lives at Belmontelaan 5: Octavie (Oti), Hendrik and their four children: Berni, Willem Hendrik (Willi), Helenus (Helli) and Jannie Marie. Oti's mother, Jeanne Marie van den Bergh-van Teijn, lives at Englaan 4 (now 16).

Clients and builders Belmontelaan 5 (‘Montana’), 1925. In the middle at the back Hendrik van Vloten with Berni, in front below him Octavie.

Oti van Vloten is a lively personality. She is on the board of the ‘Nutskleuterschool’ (kindergarten), on the national board of the Red Cross and the film inspection service and internationally she is active for the League of Nations. She has a vegetable garden and can repair cars. The quiet Hendrik van Vloten is a forest engineer and affiliated with the Agricultural College.

During the war, almost the entire Van Vloten family was in the resistance. Nationally renowned resistance fighters Arnold Douwes and Max Léon regularly spent the night with them. Through this family and through Mrs. Van den Bergh-van Teijn, they helped many Jewish and non-Jewish people in hiding to find a safe place.

The bombardment
Oti and Hendrik are visiting the Englaan on the morning of September 17. Willi had fled to grandma’s the day before because the Wageningen young men had been summoned to report to work for the Germans.Berni and Helli are with neighbours at Belmontelaan 8 when the bombing starts. Despite a bomb in the garden, they remain unharmed as they crawled under the kitchen sink. At home they find thirteen-year-old Jannie in one piece in the cellar. Together they go to their grandmother. They find their parents, seriously injured, lying in the garden. Oti is hit in the chest by a bomb fragment and dies on the spot. Hendrik is badly 
injured in his legs. His sons bandage his wounds and arrange transport to the hospital on a cart.

Belmontelaan 5, the three Van Vloten boys in the foreground

Because Operation Market Garden is in full swing, Wageningen is under fire every day. On September 21, Oti van Vloten is buried at the General Cemetery, along with 27 other victims of the bombing. Berni is the only one of the family to attend. The ceremony has to be aborted: the many attendees have to take cover due to shelling in the area.

Evacuation
In October, together with the rest of the Wageningen population, the Van Vlotens have to evacuate. Grandma Van den Bergh goes to her son in Heemstede. She dies on December 13, 1944. The children stay in Nunspeet during the rest of the war, where the family has a house.Octavie van Vloten gave lectures about the League of Nations

Family Van Vloten

In 1985 Jeanne Marie van den Bergh-van Teijn (posthumously), Oti van 
Vloten-van den Bergh (posthumously), Hendrik van Vloten and Berni 
van Vloten received the Yad Vashem award.
Englaan 2 and 4 (now 16)