Today is Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day.
With all the unspeakable evil of that time, there were also shining examples of humanity and love.
This is one of those stories:
Via Times of Israel: Truus Wijsmuller saved thousands of Jews in WWII. Why has no one heard of her?
….Other rescuers are household names: Steven Spielberg made a Hollywood film about Oskar Schindler. Streets in countries worldwide are named for Raoul Wallenberg. Nicholas Winton was knighted by Queen Elizabeth.
But few, even in the Netherlands, have heard of Wijsmuller since her death in 1978 at 82.
Seventy-two years after the end of World War II, not many of the mainly German- and Austrian-Jewish children whom Wijsmuller rescued are still alive to share their memories of her and what she did for them.
Dutch filmmaker Pamela Sturhoofd is in a race against time to find these remaining “children” — now in their 80s and 90s — interview them, and make a documentary about the fearless and determined Wijsmuller.
Among the stories she has recovered are tales of a personal visit Wijsmuller made to Adolf Eichmann in Vienna in December 1938 to convince him to let her take 600 Jewish children out of the Third Reich to Holland. Hitler agreed….
On Yom HaShoah, Israel stands in silence. To remember.
And, for Holocaust Remembrance Day 2018, an Israeli group gathered 600 Holocaust survivors, their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, to sing “Chai” (“Alive!”)
Another Dutch woman Corrie Ten Boom, her sister Betsy & their father hid
Jews in a hideaway closet. The Ten Booms were arrested & sent to a concentration camp but the Jews were not found & escaped. Their story is a book and movie
“The Hiding Place”.
Great, great book. It is very inspiring! Thanks for the reminder Midget. I think it’s time for me to read it again.
God placed an angel among us.
Dutch women are special. I have a Dutch Great-Grandmother. She was dearly loved by my Great-Grandfather. Judging by her photographs and stories I heave heard about her, she was beautiful and talented. Her daughters are attractive as well.
In the 90’s, I was acquainted with a Norfolk-based Dutch woman who also helped protect Jewish children. The Nazis found out somehow, particularly an SS–her brother. Terrified, he arranged for her to leave Holland, or she certainly would die. She showed bravery and courage, and I never saw a bitter bone in her body.