Pieter Vlam
Pieter Vlam was the second counselor in the Netherlands Mission presidency during World War II. He was also a member of the Dutch Navy, and was sent to a German prisoner of war camp where he shared the gospel with many fellow prisoners.
Vlam joined the church with his mother and sibblings when he was 16. In 1929 he married fellow Church member Hanna. About this same time he joined the Dutch Royal Navy. In 1933 he was stationed in Surabay, Indonesia. In 1939 on his return to the Netherlands, the family traveled through Salt Lake City and there Pieter and Hanna were sealed to their children Grace, Heber (named from President Heber J. Grant), Vera and Alvin.
When foriegn missionaries were withdrawn from the Netherlands on the eve of World War II, President Joseph Fielding Smith, who was conducting a tour of the missions in Europe, called Brother Vlam to serve as the second counselor in the Netherlands Mission Presidency.
Brother Vlam was in May 1942 taken as a prisoner of war along with the rest of the Dutch Military. He was interred in Stalag 135. While in the prison camp Vlam taught many people the gospel. Among those he taught who joined the church after the camp was liberated was J. Paul Jongkees who would later serve as the first Stake President in the Netherlands.
