Joan Hendrik Smidt van Gelder

My eye was caught by a recent Guardian article on how Charlotte Bischoff van Heemskerk, 101, has been reunited with a painting looted by the Nazis from her father's house in Arnhem 80 years ago.

Her father was an art collector, and there were other works looted (see this Guardian article, this from Looted Art, this from the Commission for Looted Art in Europe, and this from the Art Newspaper).  The work described in those pieces had found its way to the Mansion House in London.

My health librarian eye was further caught by mention of her father, Joan Hendrik Smidt van Gelder, a paediatrician at the city's children's hospital, who went into hiding after refusing to accept orders from the Nazis.   Who was Dr Smidt van Gelder, and what was the order?

Charlotte Bischoff van Heemskerk is described in the article as a "non practising Baptist", so perhaps her father was also a Baptist, practising or otherwise.   She joined the Dutch resistance.

There seems to be little about her father.   There is a little in an English language Wikipedia article, but there is no Dutch language Wikipedia article at all that I can find.   The English article links to a small in memoriam article in Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Geneeskunde, a Dutch medical weekly journal, a sort of Dutch equivalent to the BMJ or Lancet, published on his death in 1969.

It describes how he began work in Arnhem in 1932, and retired in 1953, leading a quiet life.   His care for his young patients and their parents is noted, and his interests in music, literature, travel and his garden.   But nothing about his hiding from the Nazis or any involvement in the resistance, or about what it was that he was ordered to do and would not.

That small piece appears not to be indexed in PubMed, certainly nothing comes up on searching for Dr Smidt van Gelder as a personal subject, or looking for things with van Gelder in the title.   The Van Gelder model of teaching, which does come up, is, I am fairly sure, not him.

I can find nothing else in the archive (or more recent material) on the Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Geneeskunde site.

I wonder, if this kind memorial was being written now, whether it would say.