At the beginning of the war, Hetty teaches at the Jewish Lyceum in Haarlem. A Jewish Lyceum, one of the many measures the Nazis had put in place. When deportations started, she decided to go into hiding.

At one of her many hiding addresses, in Veenendaal, she was arrested and taken under police escort to Amsterdam. There she escaped by jumping from a tram and fled to one of her best friends. This friend - who had a very young family - did not dare to give her a place to hide. Fortunately, her other friend did. Yet after the war, she remains friends with both of them equally.

And that is typical of Hetty. She and her husband passed on this tolerance and sense of loyalty to their children Job and Floris.